On 19 September 2012, the Government introduced a bill redesigning a Vocational Education and Training (VET) assistance scheme called VET FEE-HELP. VET FEE-HELP is an Australian Government assistance scheme introduced in 2008 to help vocational education students pay for the upfront costs of study. VET FEE-HELP is similar to other income‑contingent loans schemes offered by the Australian Government, where the student is required to pay back a loan only once their income is above a threshold level. The key elements for improving the VET FEE-HELP scheme that were examined in the Regulation Impact Statement, include:
- strengthening the quality framework which will among other things assist in identifying low quality and/or high risk training providers;
- streamlining administration which will among other things reduce costs for participating training providers; and
- improving communication.
A Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
- VET FEE-HELP Redesign RIS [
4.4 MB] - VET FEE-HELP Redesign RIS [
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