The government has released the discontinuation of the current VET FEE Help scheme as of December 2016, which is essential for women across Australia to undertake further studies in the VET sector including the beauty industry.

Courses funded under the VET FEE Help program have been cut from over 800 to just 347 with courses such as Hairdressing no longer receiving funding. These changes not only affect the amount of funding VET available to students, but also the number of courses available that result in the creation of amazing career outcomes.

Beauty therapy has been placed on the skill eligibility list at a funding cap of $10,000, along with nursing. At this level of funding for beauty it will almost make it impossible for hundreds of lower-socio economic or disadvantaged students to be able to afford to study as there will need to be a co-payment to the provider. With the Diploma of Beauty Therapy requiring over 1600 hours curriculum & teaching hours, the amount of funding the Government has allocated to the Diploma of Beauty Therapy  reduces the ability to provide a quality education and excellent graduate outcomes for students.

Newly created courses such as Advanced Diploma programs in Dermal & Cosmetic Sciences and Graduate Certificates in IPL & Laser, which provide incredible pathways into the lucrative and billion medi-spa industry are also not funded.

Currently Australia’s training providers are in the process of lobbying the Government to increase the funding cap available for the Diploma of Beauty Therapy and ask for our the advanced specialist courses in our field to added to the list. After all we have campaigned for in our industry for years around the provision of quality and rigorous training - it is devastating to think that students won't be able to afford to study and progress their careers in this wonderful industry.

DISADVANTAGE TO WOMEN

In reviewing the proposed funding list, women are severely disadvantaged with access to funding reduced across all employment categories they traditionally work in. This includes such fields as personal services, education, food, hospitality and creative arts. The fields of engineering, agriculture and environmental studies, that are traditionally filled by male applicants have been given higher funding.

Beauty Therapy attracts the most marginalized and at risk group of women, who for a large portion of them, are the first person in their family to have completed a post-secondary qualification. As they are unable to make a copayment to their education while studying this entire group now will be disadvantaged and without access to adequate funding  will have limited access to education.

One of the original purposes of VET FEE-HELP was to provide post-secondary skilled based training and equality of access to higher education at all levels in Australia.  The reduction of funding at the VET level for any specific qualification will be a definitive statement by the government that they do not support equity of access for all levels of education, especially in this case or marginalised women.

If a young woman has the academic results that allow entry to University she can choose to study in whichever field she chooses and access funding of up to $100,000.  Under this new program, if the student wants to choose to study in the VET sector her funding and study options are now significantly limited and she is disadvantaged in relation to her more 'academic' counterpart.

Andrew Norton, an expert in income-contingent student loans, reported in The Australian newspaper Oct 6 2016 that female students would be the most affected through no fault of their own.  “Potentially many fewer students will be eligible for a loan, and they will each be able to borrow less. This could affect women more than men.”  “Women have been two-thirds of VET FEE-HELP borrowers but courses favoured by women, such as beauty therapy, were singled out”.  The article further reported that government statistics on VET FEE-HELP shows that in 2014, of the 202,776 people who accessed the loans, 134,159 were women.  This is 66%.

We need your help to rally on this issue and to join us in our mission. Together we are stronger. With the beauty and wellness industry at $3.4 trillion dollars globally the skills shortage for qualified graduates in this incredible industry has never been greater.

Please sign this petition and come together to demand the government invest in the next generation of our industry.

We request that the following courses are added to the Queensland State Skills List: 

• (10167NAT) Advanced Diploma of Dermal Science & Therapies
• (SIB70110) Graduate Certificate in Intense Pulsed Light & Laser Hair Reduction

In addition we request that the following course(s) be added to the  list of eligible programs for the new VET Student Loans scheme along with a an increase in funding for the Diploma of Beauty Therapy:

• (10167NAT) Advanced Diploma of Dermal Science & Therapies
• (SIB70110)  Graduate Certificate in Intense Pulsed Light & Laser Hair Reduction
• (SHB50115) Diploma of Beauty Therapy increase funding to a minimum $15,000
• (10510NAT) Advanced Diploma of Cosmetic Dermal Science
• (52707WA)  Graduate Diploma of Dermal Therapies

Please sign this by no later than Sunday the 23rd of October, as this is the submission deadline for feedback on the eligibility list .