Federal Member for Parkes, Mark Coulton said the vast majority of training providers delivered high quality training that gave students real skills for real jobs.

 

“Unfortunately, a small minority of unscrupulous providers, or their agents or brokers, have been signing students up for courses they don’t need or want, and have no way of undertaking successfully, leaving them with significant and very real student debts and no benefit, ” Mr Coulton said.

 

“That’s why the Australian Government has changed the VET FEE-HELP Guidelines, to protect students, taxpayers and the reputation of the vast majority of providers who are doing the right thing.

 

“In April this year, the Australian Government banned providers and agents from offering inducements such as ‘free’ laptops or tablets, to enrol students.

 

“From 1 July 2015, the Government is taking this a step further by banning providers from charging withdrawal fees for students who change their mind about a course before the census date, which is the date they begin to incur a student loan debt.”

 

The Government will also require providers to have a written agreement with their agents, be responsible for their agents’ conduct and list their agents on their website. Agents will be required to disclose to prospective students who they represent and that they receive a commission for enrolments.

 

Providers and agents will also be banned from misleading students that their training is ‘free’ or ‘government-funded’, that VET FEE-HELP is not a real loan that is expected to be repaid, or telling students that they will “never earn enough to pay it back”.

 

Mr Coulton said the new VET FEE-HELP Guidelines will allow training providers six months to update their administrative systems to ensure they meet changes coming in from
1 January 2016 which will provide further protection for students.

 

“From 1 January 2016, providers will not be allowed to charge a student the total course tuition fees in one up-front hit.  This will result in students only incurring a debt as they progress through a course,” Mr Coulton said.

 

“Students will be sent invoices at least two weeks before each census date for each unit of study to ensure they are fully aware of the debt they may incur after the census date, and will be given a two-day ‘cooling off’ period between enrolment and applying for a VET FEE-HELP loan.

 

“We have listened to students who felt under pressure to make study and payment decisions on the spot, or who didn’t know what they were signing up for.  Under these changes students will be given full information and time to carefully consider their options.”

 

More information about VET FEE-HELP changes and Australian Government support for students who want to undertake post-school studies is available at www.studyassist.gov.au.