February 12, 2010

Have you heard about the Farm Ready $1500 reimbursement for primary producer training?
Farm Ready is part of the Australian Governments’ Farming Future initiative that reimburses primary producers up to $1500 per financial year to help cover the cost of training and up-skilling. Farm Ready also offers additional funding (capped at $500) for travel, accommodation and childcare expenses.

If you’re on the internet, head to www.farmready.gov.au and browse through the range of Farm Ready approved courses. The courses are run by a range of training providers across the country. Course topics range from grazing management, succession planning, business management, aquaculture, GPS training, stock handling and native seed collection just to name a few.

To take advantage of the Farm Ready subsidy is pretty straight forward:

Select a course that you’d like to attend from the list of Farm Ready approved courses on their website. Contact the training provider directly to discuss course dates/locations. You’ll need this information to fill out your application form for the Farm Ready reimbursement. Also, the distance you have to travel to the course will affect whether you can claim any of the additional $500 for associated expenses. I would tentatively book your place with the training provider, and let them know that you’re in the process of sorting out Farm Ready reimbursement approval. Some of these courses fill up quickly, so you don’t want to miss out!

Download and fill out the Farm Ready “Application Form” found at www.farmready.gov.au or call them on 1800 087 670 and they can fax/mail the form to you. Once they’ve received your completed application it will take up to 5 working days for them to notify you of approval.
Once approved, confirm with the training provider that you will be attending their course and fill out any course registration forms where applicable. You will need to pay upfront for the entire cost of the course, accommodation, child care etc.

Once you’ve completed the course fill out the “Claim for Reimbursement and Course Review Form” found on the Farm Ready website. Once submitted, you will be reimbursed a maximum of $1500 for the course and maximum of $500 for association costs (if you were eligible for associated cost reimbursement).

For example, if you attend a course that costs $1750, you will receive $1500 back. So if you attend a course that is worth $500, you still have $1000 available to claim in that financial year.

Associated reasonable costs are capped at $500 per person, per year. The ‘small print’ to determine whether you’re eligible for reimbursements for travel/accommodation can be found on the “Claim for Reimbursement and Course Review Form”, the main criteria being that you’re 150km drive from the course. Hope that makes sense!