MORE PROVINCIAL HELP FOR LEARNERS

Released on March 26, 1999

The $68.1 million being spent on help for learners in 1999-2000 is

expected to help 25,000 people through Student Financial Assistance

and Skills Training Benefits. Of these, 16,000 will be helped by the

Student Loans Program, 5,000 by the Provincial Training Allowance and

the others by Skills Training Benefits including Apprenticeship.



"Income support for learners is critical to giving Saskatchewan people

with need, access to higher education," Post-Secondary Education and

Skills Training Minister Maynard Sonntag said. "This gives people

options and opportunities they might not otherwise have.



"Investing in our young people helps everyone in Saskatchewan. We are

putting money in the hands of Saskatchewan learners, helping them to

train for real jobs and to contribute to the best of their ability to

the social and economic fabric of this province."



Saskatchewan will spend $14 million dollars this year on the Skills

Training Benefit, which offers the financial support learners need to

take the training required to get a job and keep it. There will be

$22.4 million spent on the Provincial Training Allowance and Youth

Allowances in this budget.



The Provincial Training Allowance helps people to get the basic

education and training that prepares them to go further to obtain

post-secondary education.



Saskatchewan strengthened its student financial assistance in

1998 with a Student Bursary Program for students with high need,

increased financial assistance for students with dependants and

tax changes. The Student Bursary Program has already helped

9,000 students, 3,500 of them being students with dependents.

The tax changes have benefited 30,000 people with student loans

in repayment. Now Saskatchewan is negotiating with Ottawa in the

hope of further strengthening the program by harmonizing the

Canada and Saskatchewan student loan programs. Saskatchewan

already has one of the most generous debt forgiveness programs in

the country for student assistance.



"I am optimistic that the Millennium Scholarship Fund can become

part of the discussions on harmonizing the federal and

Saskatchewan Student Financial Assistance programs," Sonntag

said. "This would offer Saskatchewan students the maximum

benefit from the programs."



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For more information, contact:



Ken Alecxe

Post-Secondary Education and Skills Training

Regina

Phone: (306) 787-6056