Providers and students avoid the VSL scheme

By CLAIRE FIELD

In January 2017, then education minister, Simon Birmingham heralded the VET Student Loans scheme as “the start of a new era for vocational education in Australia.” He reassured us the program was “designed to support students to undertake industry-linked and value-for-money courses at quality training providers”.

He went on to say that “VET Student Loans includes a range of new measures to protect students and taxpayers, address skills shortages and ultimately restore the reputation of the vocational education sector.”

Sadly, the data tells a different story – one of a student loan scheme with such restrictions that providers and students avoid it.

In 2013 (prior to a small number of providers exploiting loopholes in the VET FEE-HELP scheme) there were 98,023 students in a higher-level VET qualification backed by a VFH loan. There were 276 providers participating in the scheme.

At the end of 2018 only 57,874 students were accessing a higher qualification through the VSL scheme; studying with one of 177 providers.

Thanks to an analysis commissioned by Niche Education Group – some of the reasons for the problems in the VSL scheme are now clear. They include, decisions in relation to the different levels of funding available to different courses, the lack of providers offering many VSL-eligible courses, issues with course and loan availability in different jurisdictions, and the exclusion of private providers’ accredited courses from the scheme.

Further details are here .

Claire Field advises on VET, international education and private higher education.