The Department of Transport has launched a pilot program to help young people in regional areas gain their driver’s licence.
The 12-month program will trial a range of initiatives to support young people and identify barriers to them learning to drive.
Minister for Transport, Rita Saffioti said that, at a recent skills summit, industry representatives had raised the lack of a driver’s licence as a barrier for many young people looking for employment.
“The potential initiatives include providing a professional instructor when an area doesn’t already have one and working with not-for-profit groups, and existing driving instructors, to increase the amount of training they can provide,” Ms Saffioti said.
She said her Department would work closely with local stakeholders to implement initiatives to address local issues, including grants for driving instructors to purchase suitable vehicles and partnering with not-for-profit organisations to expand currently successful supervised driving programs.
Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery said the pilot program would help identify barriers that young people faced, while working on a range of initiatives to provide support to help them get a driver’s licence.
“We will work with the local community and stakeholders to address these issues and find targeted solutions,” Ms Ellery said.
At the end of a year, the Department of Transport will assess the success of the program and report back on which initiatives should be maintained.
