However, the funding would be offset over the forward estimates to meet Labor’s pledge to return the budget to surplus in three years.
Ms Gillard made the announcement at Richmond High School in the western Sydney electorate of Macquarie, which Labor holds by 0.3 per cent.
If re-elected, the government would aim to introduce the measure by 2012 and framed it as a decision to provide employers and industry with greater access to a skilled workers.
“Currently around 220,000 students do study vocational education and training at school,” Ms Gillard.
“That’s around 41 per cent of kids going into senior secondary certificates.”
Two streams of the national trade cadetship would be available including one stream which lays the foundation for further training and a second which focuses on achieving an apprenticeship in a specific area or trade.
The nationally recognised cadetships will be developed by the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, in partnership with industry and states and territories.
They will be delivered in the governments new trade training centres, which are still being constructed under a $2.5 billion investment by Labor.