The Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Workforce Paid Practicum Grant Opportunity Guidelines supports providing a wage subsidy to grant ECEC Employees paid leave while they undertake their paid practicum.

Overview

The purpose of the Paid Practicum grant is to provide a wage subsidy to give ECEC Employees paid leave while they are undertaking their paid practicum.

Eligibility

Only ECEC services currently approved for and receiving the Childcare Subsidy (CCS) under Family Assistance Law are eligible to apply for their employees. This includes long day care, family day care, in-home care, centre-based day care, and outside school hours care services.

To be eligible for a grant, the employee must meet the following criteria:

• Be an Australian citizen or permanent resident of Australia, or hold a valid work visa (including student visa) allowing employment in the ECEC sector.
• Be either a contact worker—an educator who is part of the adult to child ratio at a Service or who provides direct early childhood education and care, or supervision for children in other care types, such as IHC or FDC—or a non-contact worker—a director or educational leader who provides direct support, early childhood education and care, or supervision for children.
• Be a full-time, part-time, or casual employee who has worked more than 40 hours overall in the preceding three months with that Service.

The Provider must not be:

• A stand-alone kindergarten service that is not approved for and receiving CCS.
• A stand-alone pre-school service that is not approved for and receiving CCS.
• An individual.
• An organisation, or whose project partner is an organisation, included on the National Redress Scheme’s website.
• Any entity that has any outstanding invoices for previous Paid Practicum or Professional Development grant funding.
• Any entity that is already receiving the maximum amount of funding (i.e. 8 weeks) for a paid practicum for the same ECEC Employee for the same period from the Commonwealth or a state or territory government.

Funding and Benefits

Total Amount Available (AUD): $1,413,000.00

Estimated Grant Value (AUD): From $1,246.00 to $9,972.00

Application Process

Applications must be prepared and submitted online at www.secure-portal.com.au/ececgrants.

Step-by-step instructions are available to assist approved Providers with navigating the application process.

Deadline and Timeline

Close Date & Time: 3-Jul-2026 5:00 pm (ACT Local Time)

Publish Date: 2-Apr-2026

Location: ACT, NSW, VIC, SA, WA, QLD, NT, TAS

Contact Information

Contact Details: Deloitte

Phone: (03) 9917 7865

Email Address: ececgrants@deloitte.com.au

Enquiries can also be emailed to ececgrants@deloitte.com or by calling the contact number provided.