What is the VET Student Loans 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 of Education and Training (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).
Am I eligible?
To receive a VET Student Loan, you must:
- be an eligible student
- be studying an approved course
- be studying with an approved course provider
- apply to the government using the approved form, which will be managed through your provider, and
- confirm your engagement and progression to continue to access the loan throughout your course.
To be an eligible student, you must meet ALL of these criteria – further detailed below.
- You are:
- an Australian citizen, or
- a qualifying New Zealand citizen, or
- a permanent humanitarian visa holder, who is usually resident in Australia.
- Your FEE-HELP balance (the amount of your FEE-HELP limityou have left) is more than $0. This means you have enough FEE-HELP limit remaining for your proposed studies to be covered by the loan.
- You are enrolled with an approved course provider in an approved course and have enrolled in accordance with the application requirements.
- You are studying the approved courseprimarily at a campus in Australia.
- You have been assessed by your approved course provideras academically suited to undertake the approved course on the basis of either:
- providing your Australian Year 12 Certificate; OR
- providing a copy of a certificate showing that you have been awarded a qualification at level 4 or above in the Australian Qualifications Framework (where the language of instruction was English); OR
- displaying competence at Exit Level 3 in the Australian Core Skills Framework in both reading and numeracy through an approved Language, Literacy and Numeracy test.
In addition, your approved course provider must reasonably believe you show competence in completing the course.
- You meet the Tax File Number (TFN) requirements.
- You have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) or are otherwise exempt.
- You have given the required documents to your approved course provider and submitted the loan application form by the firstcensus day no less than two business days after enrolling.
To be an approved course, your course must:
- be specified by the VET Student Loans (Courses and Loan Caps) Determination2016 (the courses and loan caps determination): and
- for state-government subsidised students, lead to a qualification of diploma or advanced diploma in the Australian Qualifications Framework; or
- for full fee-paying / fee for service students, lead to a qualification of diploma, advanced diploma, graduate certificate or graduate diploma in the Australian Qualifications Framework; and
- be provided by an approved courseprovider; and
- be delivered by an approved course provider or an entity registered with TEQSA or a body approved by the department to deliver the course.
* A qualifying New Zealand citizen is a New Zealand citizen who meets all of the following:
- holds a special visa category, such as the New Zealand Special Category Visa (SCV);
- has been usually resident in Australia for at least 10 years;
- was a dependent child when he or she was first usually resident in Australia;
- has been in Australia for periods totaling 8 years during the previous 10 years; and
- has been in Australia for periods totaling 18 months during the previous 2 years.
** If your qualification is from overseas, then the certificate provided must be a letter or certificate issued by a Federal, State, or Territory government agency which assesses overseas qualifications and which shows that your qualification has been determined to be equivalent or comparable to a qualification in the Australian Qualifications Framework at level 4 or above.
Important Information
The VET Student Loans program assists eligible students enrolled in approved higher level vocational education and training (VET) courses to pay their tuition fees.
Census Dates and Tuition Fees
The census day is a very important date for you to know about!
The census day for a course, or a part of a course (e.g. unit), is the last day you can:
- complete the eCAF to apply for a VET Student Loan for your course, or
- withdraw or defer your enrolment without incurring a debt for the course or part of the course.
Every part of a course (unit of study) has its own census day, so that you incur debts as you progress through your course, and not for the whole course at the beginning. Every course must have at least three census days spread reasonably evenly throughout your course. Your provider is required by law to publish census days.
If you are unsure of your census days, check your provider’s website or contact them directly to confirm the census day for each unit you enrol in and whether withdrawal is limited to your provider’s business hours.
Your provider must send you a VET Student Loans fee notice before the census day so that you have all the information you need to make your study and payment decisions.
Census dates cannot be set any earlier than 20% of the way through the period in which a unit/s are undertaken (this period includes any examination/assessments periods). Census dates cannot be extended.
Upon confirmation of your enrolment, you will be provided with a schedule including units of study start dates, end dates and census dates specific to your course.
Below is a list of SCA Academy’s Schedule of Fees (including census dates).
Student Entry Process
Before enrolling a student in a given VSL eligible course SCA Hair and Beauty Academy must determine that the student is “academically suited” to the course. Please refer to below listed VET Student Loans Student Entry Procedure which specifies how SCA Hair and Beauty Academy will determine “academically suited “students.
Equal and Fair Treatment of Students
SCA Hair and Beauty Academy seeks to create a learning environment where all students are respected and can develop their full potential. All students are given fair and reasonable opportunity to attend and complete training. SCA Hair and Beauty Academy treats all prospective students equally and fairly. We have implemented open, fair and transparent policies that are based on merit for making decisions.
Student Withdrawal
SCA Hair and Beauty Academy ensures that its administrative processes support the provision of assistance to all students withdrawing from their study. Students paying for their course through a VSL loan can access VSL Student Withdrawal Policy and Procedure at any time here:
Student Review Procedures
Our review processes and procedures ensure that a student is not victimised or discriminated against for:
- seeking review or reconsideration of a decision; or
- using the New Futures training’s processes or procedures about dealing with grievances
- making an application for re‑crediting of the student’s FEE‑HELP balance
SCA Academy is committed to providing an effective, efficient, timely, fair and confidential academic grievance and non-academic grievances handling procedures for all VSL students. A complaint or grievance may be about an Academic or Non-Academic matter. For full details please access VSL Student Grievance Procedure.
Statement of Tuition Assurance
Tuition assurance protects students in the event a course provided by an approved VSL provider ceases to be provided after it starts but before it is completed. Affected students are offered a replacement course with another provider and where this is not possible, the students’ FEE-HELP balance for the affected part of the course will be re-credited. Details on the process and full statement to be accessed here Statement of Tuition Assurance for Exempt VSL Providers:
Privacy and Information Handling
SCA Hair and Beauty Academy is committed to protecting the privacy of students through responsible handling of personal information gathered from them. SCA Hair and Beauty Academy allows student to apply for and receive a copy of the VET personal information that SCA Hair and Beauty Academy holds. SCA Hair and Beauty Academy will take every reasonable step to make sure that the personal information it collects uses or discloses is accurate, complete and up to date. Full details are to be found in these relevant policies:
Understanding Mental Health within VET
Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being. It is all about how people think, feel, and behave. More importantly, the fact that someone is not experiencing a mental health condition doesn’t necessarily mean their mental health is flourishing.
Almost half of all Australians aged 16 to 85 years will experience mental illness at some point in their life and one in five Australians are expected to be impacted by their mental well-being in any given year.
For us in the VET Sector, these statistics are very real… They mean that 20% of our students, staff, colleagues and people around us will be affected by a mental health problem this year.
So, do you feel confident to help someone who might be experiencing a mental health problem? With some basic knowledge and a set of skills behind us, we can confidently and competently assist someone when they experience a mental health issue.
During this time of physical distancing and heightened anxiety, we would like to encourage all of our community to look after their mental health. If you are currently concerned about the mental health of a friend, family member or co-worker, we have included a list of support services.