An audit of the Department of Education and Training’s design and implementation of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Student Loans program has found it to be effective.
In his report, Design and Implementation of the VET Student Loans Program, Auditor-General, Grant Hehir said the VET Student Loans (VSL) program replaced the VET FEE-HELP (VFH) scheme in 2016.
“The Department of Education and Training’s design and implementation of the VET Student Loans program was largely effective,” Mr Hehir said.
“The Department executed an appropriate design process that considered the impacts of the new program on key stakeholders and was informed by lessons learnt from the former VFH scheme and consultation with stakeholders.”
He said the core objective of the VSL program was to remove upfront financial barriers to VET training in order to make it more accessible to students who might not otherwise have access.
“The VSL program was selected for audit because it is intended to address a number of significant deficiencies identified with the administration of the VFH scheme,” Mr Hehir said.
“An assessment of the extent to which the Department has incorporated lessons learnt from the former scheme into the new program allows design deficiencies to be addressed in a timely manner.”
He said the audit provided assurance to Parliament on the robustness of the design and implementation of the VSL program.
The audit made two recommendations concerning the scheme, both of which were agreed by the Department.
The Auditor-General’s 61-page report can be accessed at his PS News link and the audit team was Brendan Gaudry, Brendon Gittins, Barbara Das, Alana Tolman and Deborah Jackson.
