The New Colombo Plan (NCP), which supports young Australians to study and work overseas, has turned five years old.
Marking the milestone, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Marise Payne said the NCP was a long-term investment in the Indo-Pacific, which continued to help build Australia’s national prosperity and its place in the region.
“Since 2014, the NCP has awarded around 50,000 scholarships and mobility grants to Australian undergraduates to study, learn a language and undertake work experience across the Indo-Pacific,” Senator Payne said.
“Today thousands of NCP alumni are leveraging their respective experiences in the Indo-Pacific as they embark on their professional careers.”
She thanked her Department’s partners who had helped make the NCP a success, particularly Australian businesses and private sector partners in the Indo-Pacific.
“Their support has been instrumental in providing practical, real-life work experience for students, helping to develop a new generation of Australian leaders with the skills and cross-cultural understanding needed for today’s workforce,” Senator Payne said.
“The NCP has helped to turbo-charge student mobility, with nearly one in four undergraduates now taking part in an international study experience, according to a recent study by the Australian Universities International Directors Forum.”
She noted that this year there was a six-fold increase in Indigenous scholars, while nearly one in three scholars came from rural and regional Australia and one in five from a lower socio-economic background.
