Head Start

The Head Start program helps high school students gain career-ready skills through work experience, apprenticeships, and traineeships, enhancing their employability.

Start your apprenticeship in high school

Head Start is a new and flexible approach to apprenticeships and traineeships for school students.

Designed in consultation with industry, the program helps students kickstart their career by developing the hands-on skills and experience that employers need. Students spend more time doing valuable, paid, on-the-job training while completing high school.

Apprentice working with a mentor in a hands-on training environment.

Head Start students generally undertake one day a week paid employment in Year 10, 2 days a week in Year 11 and 3 days a week in Year 12 (which can be completed over 2 years).

There are 12 clusters of participating schools across Victoria working to deliver Head Start in partnership with employers and training providers.

The Head Start program(opens in a new window) ensures:

  • strong support for students and employers
  • quality training through TAFEs and Skills First contracted providers
  • career pathways for students into priority industries
  • payment of training wage in line with the Fair Work Act
  • completion of a trade qualification, or significant progress towards that goal.

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