TAFE offers 21 free courses for Australians wanting to learn new skills while they're isolated at home - saving them up to $1570 as unemployment skyrockets due to coronavirus crisis
- TAFE NSW is offering 21 courses for free for people wanting to learn new skills
- The fee-free courses can be completed by Australians while isolating at home
- Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the fee-free courses on Monday morning
- The courses offer practical skills and experiences across a range of industries
- A full list of the courses available can be found on the TAFE NSW website
Free TAFE courses are being offered to Australians wanting to learn new skills while isolating at home.
The NSW Government said it would make 21 TAFE courses fee-free in a bid to help Australians stay productive at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
The courses, which can cost as much as $1,570 for 12 weeks of study, offer practical skills and experiences across a range of industries including administration, business and computing.
It comes as more than a million Australians face being unemployed, one in ten of the country's working population of 12.5 million.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the free courses during her press conference in Sydney on Monday morning.
TAFE New South Wales (pictured) is offering 21 courses for free for Australians wanting to learn new skills while isolating at home
'We know the next six months are going to be difficult and what we have done today is announce that through TAFE there are 21 free courses you can do from home to upgrade your skills or to acquire new skills and this is good news,' she said.
'It means people can start preparing for when these difficult times are over.'
'If you haven't got a job or not working from home it is an opportunity for you to upgrade your skills or acquire new skills so you can enter or re-enter the workforce when you finish this difficult time.
There are a total of four administration skills courses, six digital skills courses on offer and two health and medical skills courses available for free.
There are also two leadership performance courses and five business skills courses available for people to do at home during isolation.
The full list of courses is available on TAFE NSW's website.
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Australians with extra time on their hands can also look to other platforms to up-skill in-demand skills during isolation.
Online learning platform Udemy has created more than 250 free courses for people wanting to study tech and coding skills, web developing, photography, time management, productivity and public speaking.
Udemy is also offering free courses on learning an instrument or digital painting.
Coursera is providing learning resources free of charge until the end of May, including lectures and quizzes.
Free courses are offered in career development, public health, science, soft skills and even poetry.
The free learning resources come amid warnings one in ten workers may soon be unemployed.
People are seen waiting in line at the Prahran Centrelink office in Melbourne after mass job cuts were made due to the coronavirus
Westpac, Australia's second biggest bank, is now expecting the jobless rate to more than triple to 17 per cent by June, taking unemployment to levels unseen since 1932 at the height of the Great Depression.
The government has been scrambling to organise a series of multi-million dollar economic stimulus package to help tackle the downturn.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians in danger of losing their jobs are set to receive $1,500 a fortnight as part of the government's 'job-keeper allowance'.
Workers at companies hit by the coronavirus shut down will be paid a flat rate of $1,500 per fortnight.
The money will be given from the tax office to the companies, who have a legal obligation to pass it on to their employees.
The $130 billion scheme is designed to keep workers connected to their employers so the economy will rebound faster when the coronavirus crisis is over.
The flat-rate payment is about 70 per cent of the median wage and is roughly equal to the median wage in the industries most affected such as hospitality and tourism.
The payment will go to full-time workers, part-time workers and casual workers who have been employed by a company for 12 months, regardless of how many shifts they worked.
The policy will apply to workers that have already been stood down, provided they were on their employer's books on March 1.
The scheme is part of the government's third round of measures to shore up the economy as officials urge people to stay at home to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Ms Berejiklian also said NSW will continue to review the restrictions in place but said the state is looking towards recovery.
'It has been about a week now and we know we are making a difference and we want to keep this up,' she said.
'Every four weeks we are able to review how NSW is going and there is a chance down the track where we can lift the restrictions in some ways. What we don't want to have to do is go harder.'
'I'm also pleased to say we have already started focusing on recovery, on what we can do as we emerge out of this difficult time.'
NSW recorded 51 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday as the number of new cases per day continues to decline.
Nationally there were 5,750 cases as of 8am on Monday.
