Private Vocational Trainers Are Charging Students Three Times As Much As TAFE

The Federal Government has released figures showing private vocational trainers are charging students almost three times as much as TAFE's and other public educators.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said that it's a "staggering" gap.

Though each state differs slightly, Tasmania came as a huge surprise. The average student there is borrowing $31,981 for private vocational training, which is 10 times as much as TAFE fees, which would be $3470.

@lenoretaylor @guardian What a surprise, to no one.. This was driven by ideology not logic. Fund TAFE and ban these exploiters.

— BobtheGeo (@bobthegeo) October 23, 2016

Federal government loans to vocational students have skyrocketed from $325m in 2012 to $2.9bn in 2015. Between 2012 to 2015 enrolment in vocational courses has risen from 57,400 to 320,400.

Clearly, there's a growing demand for vocational studies. Four in five students said they're studying to get a job or for job-related reasons such as improving their skills.

"The 2015 data is littered with even more examples of rorting and shonky behaviour from some providers who continue to take advantage of students and taxpayers and tarnish the reputation of the vocational education and training sector," said Birmingham.

To address these issues, the federal government has planned an overhaul of the entire VET Fee-Help system.

The new system will impose loan caps on courses and will strengthen course eligibility criteria to bring them in line with "industry requirements".

Photo: iStock