Up to 60,000 students per year will no longer have to pay upfront fees to undertake vocational education and training.
Finally, VET diploma students will get the same rights that university students have had for years:
* No upfront fees
* Access to an interest-free loan to pay for their study.
* Only having to pay that loan back once their income reaches a certain level.
For too long, potential students have been deterred from higher level vocational education because of upfront fees. These fees can exceed $3000 per year. Many workers have given up the chance of retraining for the same reason.
These reforms will break down the cost barrier to higher level vocational education.
The Government will pay the upfront costs of a course as a loan and students will not have to repay the loan until they have secured a good job with enough income to allow them to make gradual repayments (currently an income of $47,196 per year).
If all states and territories agree to the offer of expanded access to VET FEE-HELP, and the maximum take-up is achieved, up to $155 million could be loaned each year to subsidised higher level VET students. This could support as many as 60,000 higher level VET students with student loans each year.
Under the Government's offer to the states and territories, interest-free, deferred loans will be available to all students studying publicly subsided diplomas and advanced diplomas. Students seeking to undertake higher level VET qualifications will the choice of an income contingent loan to pay those fees if they are unable or don't want to pay for tuition fees upfront.
This means the number of workers with a diploma of advanced diploma qualification in the labour market will increase and businesses will have more highly qualified graduates.
The increased private investment in training also means states and territories will have more financial resources to increase publicly subsidised training places.