TNA has come across some exciting news for Victorian-based circus riggers: free and highly subsidised High Risk Work licenses! 

The Victorian Government has two initiatives, Skills First and Free TAFE, which are currently funding free and heavily subsidised training and courses in a range of industries. The ones that caught our eye are High Risk Work Licenses required for circus rigging. In particular, Certificate III in Rigging is an amazing free opportunity to get a lot of tickets in one single course. 

To be eligible for a subsidised place you must be an Australian resident/citizen or a New Zealand citizen, you must be physically present in Victoria for the training, you can only do two courses per year and no more than two at courses at a time. 

Information on these government-funded places was difficult to find online and there are not many organisations participating in the initiative. To help you out, our Rigging Program Producer, Christian, has put together an overview of course providers for single tickets, along with helpful factsheets on each ticket. These include relevant information on funding and course providers, as well as links taking you directly to the course you want to book:

• Forklift Ticket 
• EWP Ticket 
• Dogging 
• Rigging – Basic 
• Rigging – Intermediate 
• Certificate III Rigging (includes all tickets above, up to Rigging Intermediate) 
• Rigging – Advanced (no funding currently offered)

We don’t know if this program will continue beyond 2023, so jump on it quick smart!

We also understand there may be different initiatives run by each state and territory, so Christian will be looking into those outside of Victoria over the coming months. 

So, what does this mean for TNA’s Rigging Ticket Upgrade Program? 
TNA’s ticket upgrade program was going to offer bursaries to cover the costs of single rigging tickets, but in light of this government funding, we are now reworking TNA’s program to instead fill the gaps of what isn’t being funded. At this stage we think it will likely focus on subsidising Advanced tickets, and we might also look at ways to support regional riggers to access training. Stay tuned for more info on this coming soon. 

Please feel free to reach out to Christian if you have any thoughts, ideas or questions about the government funded training or about TNA’s rigging program: christian@tna.org.au