Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The Government is extending the very popular Apprenticeship Boost initiative by a further four months to provide extra support to trades and trades training. Through the Apprenticeship Boost, employers can access a subsidy of $1,000 per month for their first-year apprentices and $500 per month for their second-year apprentices. Extending the boost to run through until August 2022 means that employers can keep getting the subsidy for apprentices who are in their first two years of training, but it also means that employers who have apprentices starting over those extra four months can get some of the Apprenticeship Boost as well, and that could benefit up to 5,000 additional apprentices. 