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VET Student Loans

The VET Student Loans (VETSL) program assists eligible students enrolled in approved higher level vocational education and training (VET) courses to pay their tuition fees.

VET Student Loans will not be approved for students who do not meet eligibility criteria.

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What is the VET Student Loan Program?

The VET Student Loans program is an Australian Government loan program that helps eligible students enrolled in approved courses at diploma level or above, at approved course providers pay their tuition fees. The loan has income-contingent repayment arrangements, which means you only need to make repayments if you are earning above the minimum repayment threshold. You can make voluntary repayments at any time.

If you are an eligible student, the department may approve your VET Student Loan for an approved course. The department will pay your loan directly to your approved course provider. You will be responsible for any gap amount in the tuition fees, which are not covered by the loan. You will owe a debt to the Australian Government for the loan, which will be managed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

VET Student Loans will not be approved for students who do not meet eligibility criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

To receive a VET Student Loan at ACCCO, you must:

      1. be an eligible student
      2. apply to the government using the approved form on or before the first census date of your course
      3. submit Progression Forms to confirm your ongoing engagement with your studies
      4. continue accessing a VET Student Loan throughout your course.

To be an eligible student at ACCCO, you must meet ALL of these criteria:

      • You must be:
        • an Australian citizen or
        • a qualifying New Zealand citizen or
        • a permanent humanitarian visa holder, who is usually resident in Australia.
      • Your HELP balance (the amount of your HELP loan limit you have left) is more than $0. This means you have enough HELP loan limit remaining for your proposed studies to be covered by the loan. The HELP loan limit is the limit on how much you can borrow. Any borrowing under FEE-HELP, VET FEE-HELP, VET Student Loans and, from 1 January 2020, HECS-HELP will count towards your HELP loan limit.
      • You must not have borrowed more than the loan cap limit for the course you are intending to study
      • Demonstrate your academic suitability to undertake the approved course by:
        • providing a copy of
          • your Australian Year 12 Certificate or
          • providing a copy of a certificate showing you have been awarded a qualification at level 4 or above in the Australian Qualifications Framework (where the language of instruction was English)
        • Sit an approved LLN assessment displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy
      • You must hold a Tax File Number (TFN)
      • You must have a Unique Student Identifier (USI), or provide permission to ACCCO to create one on your behalf
      • You must have read the VET Student Loans information booklet

For more detailed information checkout the government’s VSL Quick Guide – eligibility.

What states offer this program?

ACCCO offers the VET Student Loan program nationally.

Fees
Qualification Enrolment Per Unit** Total Course Loan Cap
CHC50121  $0.00  $495.00  $7,425.00  $15,000.00
CHC62015  $0.00  $495.00  $6,435.00  $10,000.00

** First aid units are charged at our Domestic FFS Prices

Course Loan Cap is the maximum a student can borrow under the VSL program for this course

What courses are funded?

CHC50121 Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care

Educators at this level are responsible for designing and implementing curriculum that meets the requirements of an approved learning framework and for maintaining compliance in other areas of service operations. They use specialised knowledge and analyse and apply theoretical concepts to diverse work situations. They may have responsibility for supervision of volunteers or other educators.

CHC62015 Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management

This qualification has been designed for those who are currently employed as, or eligible to work as a Nominated Supervisor, Director, Coordinator, Manager or similar in an ACECQA approved service.

More Information about the loan

A Vet Student Loan is a loan from the Commonwealth.

The loan will remain a personal debt until it is repaid to the Commonwealth

The loan may, until the debt is repaid, reduce a person’s take home (after tax) wage or salary and may reduce the person’s borrowing capacity.

The loan must be paid to the Australian Taxation Office when your income reaches a certain level.

Students should seek independent financial advice before applying for a loan.

If you are a full fee-paying student, a loan fee of 20% will be added to the VSL loan amount.

Each eligible student has a FEE-HELP limit that can be used over their lifetime. The loan cannot be greater than the student’s remaining FEE HELP balance.

The approved VET course at ACCCO has a maximum loan (cap) amount that can be used under the VET Student Loan program.

The Commonwealth pays funds directly to ACCCO for your tuition fees. Your Commonwealth Higher Education Support Number (CHESSN) is connected to information about your VSL debt.

Collection of Information

Students are required to complete an enrolment application using the online enrolment found at this link, or by completing the hardcopy enrolment application form. The enrolment application process includes collecting and verifying evidence of

–  the student’s identity

–  the student’s date of birth

–  the student’s eligibility to access a VET Student Loan (more information on eligibility is available in the eligibility criteria link above)

 

ACCCO will only collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to carry out the functions and activities required of a Registered Training Organisation and will always do so in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988.

ACCCO’s Privacy Statement and Privacy Policy can be found here.

LLN Assessment

As part of the enrolment process students must complete an approved LLN assessment. Results of the assessment will be provided to students as soon as practicable after the assessment and to the Secretary for Department of Education, Skills and Employment in the form, manner and by the time requested by the Secretary.

The LLN assessment used by ACCCO is the Core Skills Profile for Adults which has been approved by the Secretary as per the department’s website. Completion of the CSPA must be done with honesty and integrity.

Information For Students Under 18

There are no age restrictions to apply for a VET Student Loan, however, students under 18 must complete one of the following requirements:

      • a parent or guardian must sign the Commonwealth’s parental consent form for the loan. This is available on the Commonwealth Department of Education website. Students must provide this form to ACCCO before they can apply for a loan; OR
      • if the student is receiving Youth Allowance on the basis that they are independent, they must provide a Centrelink Income Statement noting the independent assessment.

A student’s parent or guardian will not be responsible for making loan repayments and it will not affect their credit rating.

Census Dates

Every study period has a census date to allow students to withdraw from the units they have commenced in the study period without accruing additional debt on their VET Student Loan. Students must withdraw from a unit on or before the census date to avoid accruing additional debt on their VET Student Loan.

Students must apply for their VET Student Loan on or before the census date in their first study period, otherwise they will not receive a loan and will not be able to continue their course. Students without a VET Student Loan will be automatically withdrawn from their course.

For students enrolled or enrolling in CHC50121 or CHC62015 the census dates are as follows:

Course and Unit Withdrawal

Withdrawal from Course

Students wanting to withdraw from their course are required to complete a Student Request to Cancel form and submit to ACCCO either via their trainer or to the ACCCO office by emailing [email protected]

The Student Request to Cancel form is available on this website at the Useful Forms for Students page, or via this direct link to the form.

Where a student submits a Student Request to Cancel form on or before the census date for the current study period the student will not accrue a debt for the units in the current study period or future study periods.

Students who have withdrawn from their course will have their course cancelled. Student wishing to continue study after their course is cancelled will need to complete enrolment application process again.

Students can find out about ACCCO initiated course withdrawals in the Suitability and Support Policy, available on the Compliance page, or via this direct link.

Withdrawal from Units in a Study Period

Students may choose to withdraw from individual units in study period without withdrawing from their course. Students can do this by emailing their trainer or by emailing the ACCCO office at [email protected] and requesting to withdraw from individual units.

Where a student requests to withdraw from one or more units in a study period, prior to or on the census date, they will not accrue a debt for the unit/s during the current study period.

Students can request to complete the withdrawn unit/s in a later study period. During that later study period the student will accrue a debt for the unit/s after the census date.

Student Progression and Engagement

Students must demonstrate to the Department of Education and Training that they are a genuine student, continuing with their studies. Ongoing access to a VET Student Loans is dependent upon students demonstrating they are still engaged in and progressing through their qualification.

To demonstrate engagement and to continue to receive a loan, students must complete the ‘VET Student Loans – Confirming enrolment and continued course engagement and participation’ form at least twice each calendar year – around February, June and October – for the duration of their qualification.

The Progress Form will be automatically sent to students nominated email addresses by ACCCO.

If students do not confirm their continuing engagement and participation using the Progression Form, they may be ineligible to continue accessing a VET student loan for the rest of their tuition fees.

Study Periods

When studying a qualification under the VETSL program, students commence and complete units of competency within defined timeframes known as study periods. At ACCCO there are four study periods in a year, each with a duration of 11 weeks.

Students can choose a Full Time study load by enrolling in, commencing and completing the required number of units each study period. Students choose to be Part Time by enrolling into less than the required Full Time amount of units.

You can download the Full Time Course Schedule here. Please note that the schedule is based off ACCCO’s recommended elective units, and may differ if alternate electives are chosen.

Complaints and Appeals

In addition to ACCCO’s Complaints and Appeals Policy, the government has a VET Student Loans Ombudsman that has legal powers to investigate and deal with complaints. More information about the ombudsman can be found at https://www.ombudsman.gov.au/How-we-can-help/vslo.

Students who submit a complaint, or appeal including, students seeking a review or reconsideration of a decision, and students making an application for re-crediting of the student’s FEE-HELP balance, shall not be victimised or discriminated against by ACCCO, its employees or delegates.

Re-crediting of FEE-HELP balances

The following information applies to the re-crediting of FEE-HELP balances.

      • A student’s FEE-HELP balance can be re-credited under Division 2 and 3 of Part 6 of the VET Student Loans Act 2016 (the Act)
      • Students may apply to ACCCO for their FEE-HELP balance to be re-credited under section 68 of the Act because of special circumstances.
      • Students may apply to the Secretary for the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the Secretary) for their FEE-HELP balance to be re-credited under section 71 of the Act because:
        • ACCCO, or a person acting on ACCCO’s behalf, engaged in unacceptable conduct in relations to the student’s application for the VET student loan, or
        • ACCCO has failed to comply with the Act or an instrument under the Act and the failure has adversely affected the student
      • Special circumstances are circumstances that:
        • are beyond the student’s control, and
        • do not make their full impact on the student until on or after the census day for a course, or part of a course, and
        • make it impracticable for the student to complete the requirements for their course, or part of the course, during the student’s enrolment in the course or part of the course
      • Applications for re-crediting under section 68 of the Act must be made within 12 months after the census day for the course, or part of the course, concerned, or within that period as extended by ACCCO
      • Applications for re-crediting under section 71 of the Act must be made within 5 years after the census day for the course, or the part of the course, concerned, or within that period as extended by the Secretary
      • Students wanting a decision on whether or not a re-credit of FEE-HELP balances will occur reconsidered or reviewed can either:
      • There is no charge for reconsideration or review of decisions, other than review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal
      • The Secretary may re-credit a student’s FEE-HELP in relation to special circumstances if ACCCO:
        • is unable to act or is being wound up or has been dissolved, or
        • has failed to act and the Secretary is satisfied that the failure is unreasonable
      • Students who apply to ACCCO for re-crediting of their FEE-HELP balance shall not be victimised or discriminated against by ACCCO, its employees or delegates.

Replacement Courses

Where ACCCO is requested to provide a student with a replacement course, as their previous training provider can no longer provide the course, the following apply:

        • The student shall be awarded a credit transfer for units that they have completed successfully, and can demonstrate evidence of with a statement of attainment or USI transcript.
        • The student shall not be charged fees for any credit transfer outcomes awarded to the student.
Support

If you have any questions or need additional information please visit the links below, or contact VET Student Loans Department of Employment and Workforce Relations Student Enquiry line via email [email protected] or by phoning 1800 020 108.

Where to go for Additional Information?

More information about VSL can be found:

FAQs

How do I apply for a VET Student Loan?

This quick guide provides information on the application process for VET Student Loans.

How do I repay my loan?

VET Student Loans will remain as a personal debt in the student’s name until it is repaid to the Commonwealth Government via the Australian Taxation Office. The loan may, until it is repaid, reduce the after-tax wage or salary, and may reduce the student’s borrowing capacity. Repaying the Government’s loan is required when the income reaches the repayment threshold. The income threshold can be found at  www.studyassist.gov.au. As with any loan, students may wish to seek independent financial advice before they take out a VET Student Loans.

How do I enrol in units each Study Period?

Every study period has a two week enrolment window during which students can nominate the units they want to study in the upcoming study period. The enrolment period is the week prior to the start of the start period and the first week of the study period. Students can nominate the units by emailing or contacting their assigned trainer/assessor. Students can enrol in up to 0.25 EFTSL worth of units each study period. This equates to Full Time study.

What happens if I do not complete all of the units in a study period?

Units that are not complete in a study period carry over to the next study period and count towards the 0.25 EFTSL worth of units they can enrol into.

What is EFTSL?

EFTSL stands for Equivalent Full Time Study Load and is a measure used to determine a student’s study load. An EFTSL value of 1.0 is the study load equivalent 1 year of full time study. Each unit is assigned an EFTSL value based on the nominal hours of training and assessment required to complete the unit.
Example:
In a study period a student may enrol into the following three units as together they make up less than 0.25 EFTSL
Unit 1 = 0.08 EFTSL
Unit 2 = 0.1 EFTSL
Unit 3 = 0.065 EFTSL
Total EFTSL = 0.245

For further information please contact our VET Coordinator
on 1300 139 406 or email us at [email protected]