VET FEE-HELP

The Federal Government's recent introduction of a student loan scheme for vocational education and training programs from approved providers has already provided assistance to hundreds of students at Bedford College.

This is because the scheme has given individuals, who previously may have been restricted from enrolling in vocational courses due to financial constraints, the ability to undertake a course and pay for it later, once they begin working.

VET FEE-HELP is an extension of the FEE-HELP Higher Education Loan Program (HELP). It assists eligible full fee-paying students to undertake VET courses of study (diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate and graduate diploma courses) with an approved VET provider, to pay for all or part of their tuition costs.

Individuals who use the scheme begin repaying their debt once they have graduated and reach a taxable income threshold of $41,594.

Bedford College was the fist VET-only provider nationally to be approved by the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations to provide VET FEE-HELP loans to students. And Bedford is still one of only a handful of training providers approved to offer the loan scheme.

What this means for students is that there are now no barriers to anyone regardless of their age, their educational background or their financial position wishing to upskill themselves through a vocational educational course in order to gain a better paid and more enjoyable job, fast.