That ICPA (Aust) advocate to the Federal Department of Education (DoE) to ensure time spent working under the Permission to Teach program or equivalent programs, counts towards the time required to access a reduction of the Higher Education Loan Program, (HELP) in very remote areas.
In Queensland, a range of rural teacher incentives currently exist to attract teachers to rural placements and are made available to Permission To Teach staff. One key incentive for teachers to go rural is to access the HELP after completing four years of rural employment. At present, the time spent working under the Permission To Teach program does not count towards this four-year period meaning that those teaching staff would have to complete five years or more in a rural setting before being able to access the HELP.
