Following lots of recent media attention in relation to brokers unethically enrolling students into Diploma level courses by targeting disadvantaged students, overpriced courses and offering sign up incentives such as free laptops (abc news article here); there have been a number of responsive actions both from the government and the national regulatory authority (ASQA), including:
Tougher guidelines – announced 1st July – Hon. Simon Birmingham
- These include a 2 day cooling off period for all VET FEE-HELP enrolments and tuition fees to be charged evenly over 4 periods of a course.
- ASQA audited 21 VET FEE-HELP Providers and interviewed 400 students in response to 110 complaints received. As a result one RTO had it’s registration cancelled under the NVR Act and the ESOS Act, five are being subjected to further regulatory scrutiny and eight had conditions imposed in relation to issues identified.
Detailing issues and findings in relation to ‘The operation, regulation and funding of private vocational education and training (VET) providers in Australia‘ (15 October 2015).
ASQA Keynote presentation (Watch Video) – ASQA’s Chief Commissioner Chris Robinson gave a keynote presentation at the recent VELG national VET Conference in which he spoke generally about ASQA’s recent progress, intentions for the future and response to the issues around VET FEE-HELP. In particular there were disgruntled members of the VET community who were able to have their questions answered following the presentation
Published 23rd October 2015