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Budget 2014 will make it much easier for sole parents to move off benefit and into full time study announced Steven Joyce, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment and Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Development.

The Government is investing between $18 and $24 million over four years to implement three policy changes that will align the student support system for sole parents with the benefit system.

The latest HLFS employment figures show the Government’s focus on young people is paying off, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett say.

“An increase of 28,500 (9.3 per cent) 15 to 24 year-olds in work over the past year and the lowest number of young people not being in employment, education, or training since 2008 is promising news for them and their families,” Mr Joyce says.

The Foundation-Focused Training Opportunities (FFTO) programme is to be replaced from 1 January 2014 with an expanded range of more effective education and training programmes to help beneficiaries and young people get into work, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Social Development Minister Paula Bennett announced today.

FFTO programmes consist of 26-week foundation-level training courses for beneficiaries funded by Vote Social Development and administered by the Tertiary Education Commission.

FFTO will be replaced by the following: