Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The Turnbull government is taking the action of bringing to an end to the VET FEE-HELP scheme at the conclusion of this calendar year and replacing it with a new program, the VET Student Loans program, that firstly has in place strong safeguards to admit public providers, TAFES, and only those private providers in the training market of high repute and good outcomes for their students. Secondly, it limits the range of courses that are being provided support to those that actually are relevant to employment outcomes and boosting the employment prospects of students studying. Thirdly, it will apply a loan cap across a range of different criteria—$5000, $10,000 and $15,000 loan caps—that will support effective costs of delivering different programs. It will also ensure there is a student engagement measure so that we know students are engaged in their studies and participating. There are a range of other compliance measures that ensure our new program has all of the safeguards that were sadly lacking in the old program. (Time expired)