Adult and Community Education

The NSW Government’s Adult and Community Education (ACE) Program provides affordable, local training and education to NSW communities. Under the ACE program, participants, employers, delivery partners and providers and the government collaborate to improve learning outcomes for learners and meet community training needs.

WHO IS IT FOR?

The ACE program is designed to target Disadvantaged Students, and students in Regional and Remote communities in NSW. The ACE Program provides funding towards training up to and including Certificate III level.

The ACE Program offers support to individuals, small business owners and their staff by

providing fully subsidised accredited and non-accredited training in targeted courses in

information technology, business services or foundation skills.

ACE MAY HELP YOU: 

  • Get into work for the first time
  • Return to work
  • Acquire new skills, knowledge and experience and strengthen existing skills 
  • Improve your confidence when looking for work or education and training opportunities

AM I ELIGIBLE?

To be eligible you must be:

  • 15 years of age or older
  • no longer at school
  • living or working in NSW
  • an Australian OR New Zealand Citizen, Australian Permanent Resident OR a Humanitarian Visa Holder, OR a Partner Visa Holder whose sponsor is a current or past Humanitarian Visa Holder; AND

Meet one or more of the following:

  • Identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
  • Receive an applicable Commonwealth benefit or is a dependent child, spouse, or partner of a recipient of an applicable benefit
  • Live with a disability or is the dependent child, spouse or partner of a person with a disability
  • Experiencing barriers due to due to low language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills
  • Identify as culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and meet one or more of the eligible criteria
  • Unemployed or underemployed (working less than 25 hours per week)
  • Returning to the workforce after a gap of 12 months
  • Looking to upskill or reskill and aged 55 or older or experiencing barriers due to unforeseen circumstances
  • Experiencing hardship or barriers to education due to personal circumstances
  • Aged between 15-24 with barriers to education and employment
  • Have not completed year 12 or equivalent
  • Living in regional and remote communities
  • Does not meet any of the above criteria AND is either:
    • Owner of a small business*; OR
    • Employee of a small business or not-for-profit organization

*A small business is an enterprise with; less than 20 full time equivalent (FTE) employees; or, less than 200 FTE employees if the enterprise’s primary operations is in a Regional or Remote Location.

To check your eligibility and subsidised training status for any of our courses please contact us.

As an ACE provider Macquarie Community College (RTO 90033) is able to offer a suite of short courses subsidised by the NSW Government. Click here for further information on the ACE program and enrolment process.

This training is subsidised by the NSW Government.