2025 Bendigo and Adelaide Bank TAFE Scholarship for Regional and Rural Students

Submissions are now being accepted. Submissions close at midnight 31 January 2025 (AEDT).

The 2025 Bendigo and Adelaide Bank TAFE Scholarship for Regional and Rural Students aims to assist community minded leaders, taking their next step in their education journey, with a passion for their regional area, who have been offered a place at an Australian TAFE Institute to study for the first time in 2025 and are experiencing challenging circumstances.

The Scholarship program supports the following study related expenses – accommodation costs, course costs (excluding HELP), study-related materials/equipment, textbooks, tutoring and /or education related travel (within Australia).

Key general qualification criteria:

  • You are an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
  • You are from a regional, rural or remote area.
  • You can demonstrate leadership both within, and outside, your school community.
  • You can demonstrate the challenging circumstances (financial &/or social) hindering your ability to undertake further study; and
  • You are a motivated student who can demonstrate community involvement.

For study at TAFE (in courses other than undergraduate bachelor’s degree)

Qualification criteria:

  • You will be a first time TAFE student, studying on a full-time or part-time basis.
  • You have been offered a place to commence study in 2025 at an approved Australian TAFE institute campus in an eligible Australian course* (listed below).
  • You can be studying on campus and/or off campus (including online).
  • You must have left secondary school (having completed Year 10 as a minimum).
  • You must be aged 16 to 25 as at 31 January 2025 – Students under the age of 18 years will require parental/guardian consent to accept this scholarship.

* Eligible courses include:

  • Full-time or competency-based completion (Apprenticeships),
  • Certificate I, II, III or IV, Diploma, Advanced Diploma or Associate degree
  • Course must be of at least 10 weeks’ duration for full-time study or the part time equivalent.

Courses ineligible for this scholarship include VETiS, Foundation level training and short courses.

The scholarship award value $5,000 per year for 2 years for each successful recipient, subject to the criteria set out above and satisfactory academic performance.

Applications are encouraged from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people living with a disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and those who identify as LGBTQA+.

Applicants will be advised of an outcome for their application by March - April 2025.

For further information or assistance with your application – phone 1300 304 541.

The Scholarship Selection Committee reserves the right, at its discretion, not to award this scholarship in any given year.

Bendigo Bank scholarships are funded from management accounts of the Community Enterprise Charitable Fund ABN 12 102 649 968 (the Fund), The Bendigo Centre, Bendigo VIC 3550. Sandhurst Trustees Limited ABN 16 004 030 737 AFSL 237906, a subsidiary of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited ABN 11 068 049 178, AFSL 237879, is the trustee of the Fund.

 

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Before you begin:

Welcome to the Bendigo Bank online grant application service, powered by SmartyGrants. For queries about the guidelines, deadlines, or questions in the form, please email us at foundation@bendigobank.com.au and quote your submission number. If you need more help using this form, download the Help Guide for Applicants or check out Applicant Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Saving your draft application:  

If you wish to leave a partially completed application, press 'save and close' and log out. When you log back in and click on the 'My Submissions' link at the top of the screen, you will find a list of any applications you have started or submitted. You can reopen your draft application and start where you left off. You can also download any application, whether draft or completed, as a PDF. Click on the 'Download PDF' button located at the bottom of the last page of the application form.

Submitting your application:

You will find a Review and Submit button at the bottom of the Navigation Panel. You need to review your application before you can submit it. Once you have reviewed your application you can submit it by clicking on 'Submit' at the top or bottom of the screen or on the navigation panel. You will not be able to submit your application until all the compulsory questions are completed and there are no validation errors.

Once you have submitted your application, no further editing or uploading of support materials is possible. When you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email with a copy of your submitted application attached. This will be sent to the email you used to register. If you do not receive a confirmation of submission email then you should presume that your submission has NOT been submitted. Hint: check the email hasn't landed in your spam/junk email folder.

Attachments and supporting documents:

You will need to upload/submit attachments to support your application. This is simple but requires you to have the documents saved on your computer, or on a storage device. You need to allow enough time for each file to upload before trying to attach another file. Files can be up to 25MB each; however, we do recommend trying to keep files to a maximum of 5MB – the larger the file, the longer the upload time.