Student Contribution Fees

STUDENT CONTRIBUTION FEES POLICY AND PROCEDURE 

In accordance with our contract with the Department of Education and Training (DET) for the delivery of "User Choice" Apprenticeships and Traineeships, we are required as a Supervising Registered Training Organisation to charge Apprentices and Trainees participating in Level II or above qualifications, "Student Contribution Fees". Students participating in a school based apprenticeship or traineeship do not incur Student Contribution fees. Student Contribution Fees are not applicable to "Fee for Service" students.

Student Contribution Fees will be invoiced at the end of each month, after training /assessment has been delivered. Payment for these invoices can be made via cheque, money order, credit card over the phone or in person at the office or direct deposit (Work Skills banking details will be included on the invoice).

NB: A Student will not receive a student contribution fee invoice if he or she has not completed any assessments successfully in that month or the student contribution fee is less than $10.00 for the month. For the later, the $10.00 fee will be added to the next invoice.

From January 1^st 2012, these student contribution fees are calculated at $1.55 per nominal hour for each Unit of Competency delivered. Below is an example of costing and how it is calculated. The Department of Education and Training (DET) may amend the fees chargeable on an annual basis, based on CPI. If this occurs, your Client Manager will inform you of this with a written notice prior to changes.

Example on how fees will be calculated:

An Apprentice completing an Apprenticeship in Automotive, Certificate III Automotive Sales (Parts Interpreting) completes a unit of Competency such as "Promote Products and Services" which has a nominal hour's completion time of 20 hours. Therefore 20 Hours x $1.55 = $31.00.

The whole Apprenticeship has an approximate total nominal hours of 787 hours x $1.55 = $1,219.85. This amount however is divided by the number of years it takes to complete the Qualification. In this case an example may be three years. Therefore, the cost would be approximately $406.61 per year. Divided into twelve months would be approximately $33.88 per month.  

Are you exempt from paying 60% Student Contribution Fees?

It should be noted that an Apprentice will be exempt from paying 60% of the Student Contribution Fee if it can be shown that the Apprentice falls into one of the following exemption categories:

• The Student was or will be under 17 at the end of February in the year in which the RTO provides training, and the student has not completed year 12.
• The Student holds a health care card or pensioner card issued under Commonwealth law, or is the partner or a dependent of a person who holds a health care card or pensioner concession card and is named on the card.
• The Student issues the RTO with an official form under Commonwealth law confirming that the student, his or her partner or the person of whom the student is a dependent, is entitled to concessions under a health care card or pensioner concession card.
• A certified copy of a current health care card or current pensioner card is required. It is the responsibility of the Apprentice/Trainee to ensure a current document is supplied. If the currency of the document provided lapses, the Apprentice will be billed at full rate until a certified copy is received by Work Skills.
• The Student is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person.