Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton, has said that new regulations introduced by the Federal Government and effective from 1 January 2015 are targeted at rogue operators within the training sector.

Mr Coulton said that there had been cases within the Electorate where training brokers had employed unscrupulous practices to sign prospective students up.

“Most training organisations have been doing the right thing. However there have been rogue operators, like we saw in Coonamble in late October last year.”

“These changes were clearly needed to crack down on organisations or training brokers who were offering cash incentives to students to sign up to a course that they did not need.”

“Under the new standards, training providers must be clear with prospective students about the agreement that they are entering into including any VET-Fee HELP loans,” said Mr Coulton.

The Federal Government is also allocating $68 million over four years to the Australian Quality Skills Authority (ASQA) to ensure that the new standards are enforced.

ASQA has refused around 16 per cent of applications from organisations seeking to register as a new training provider and over 6 per cent of applications from existing providers trying to re-register.

Further information about the new standards for training providers and brokers is available at www.vetreform.industry.gov.au.