Private vocational trainers are charging students – and the taxpayers who give them loans – almost three times as much as TAFE and other public educators.
In Tasmania they are charging 10 times as much, with the average student borrowing $32,981, compared with Tafe fees of just $3470.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, says the new figures his department released on Monday highlight the “staggering” gap between what providers have been charging for courses and what a Tafe would charge.
“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,” he says.
Federal government loans to vocational students have blown out from $325m in 2012 to $2.9bn in 2015. The new figures show that, at the same time, enrolments grew from 57,400 in 2012 to 320,400 in 2015.
More than half of vocational students reported they were unemployed or not seeking a job when they signed up for their course. And nearly four in five said they were studying either to get a job or for job-related reasons such as improving their skills.
Here we have evidence of the madness of the Liberal Party's long running attempts to undermine and sell off TAFE and provide slush funding instead into their corrupt private system. Why is the minister feigning surprise ?
In Tasmania they are charging 10 times as much, with the average student borrowing $32,981, compared with Tafe fees of just $3470.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, says the new figures his department released on Monday highlight the “staggering” gap between what providers have been charging for courses and what a Tafe would charge.
“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,” he says.
Federal government loans to vocational students have blown out from $325m in 2012 to $2.9bn in 2015. The new figures show that, at the same time, enrolments grew from 57,400 in 2012 to 320,400 in 2015.
More than half of vocational students reported they were unemployed or not seeking a job when they signed up for their course. And nearly four in five said they were studying either to get a job or for job-related reasons such as improving their skills.
Here we have evidence of the madness of the Liberal Party's long running attempts to undermine and sell off TAFE and provide slush funding instead into their corrupt private system. Why is the minister feigning surprise ?
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