Vocational Education and Training Delivered to School Students

VET delivered to school students funding

Vocational Education and Training (VET) delivered to school students is a key component of the Victorian Government's strategy to support high-quality vocational pathways, increase student retention, and improve school completion rates by providing suitable options for all students.

Core Student Learning Allocation Funding, provided to schools through the Student Resource Package (SRP) is the primary source of funding for VET. Supplementary VET Funding alleviates the additional costs of participation in VET, compared to participation in academic school-based curriculum.

Supplementary VET Funding

Supplementary VET Funding is provided in 3 components in the SRP:

• VET Delivered to School Students (tuition funding)
• materials
• Small Scale Core Funding Supplement.

Eligibility

Training at Certificate II or III level is eligible for Supplementary VET Funding, unless undertaken:

• as an apprenticeship or traineeship outside of school
• outside of the timetabled school curriculum and not contributing to senior secondary education
• in Certificates in General Education and School-based Support
• by students from overseas and at non-government schools or
• by students outside of the age range 15 to 20 years at the VASS enrolment deadline (in early May each year).

Training at Certificate IV level or above is eligible for funding if it does not meet any of the above criteria, and it has been pre-approved for delivery to VCE students by the VCAA. For more information on VCAA approval, refer to: High level qualifications undertaken as part of the VCE.

School-based apprenticeships or traineeships (including those supported by Head Start) are only eligible for Materials funding.

Allocation

Supplementary VET Funding is provided in quarterly lump sum payments through the Student Resource Package (SRP). A school’s annual allocation of funding is determined by the student VET enrolments entered into the Victorian Assessment Software System (VASS) by the enrolment deadline. Schools must ensure they have the correct enrolment in VASS by the enrolment deadline to receive funding.

This date is usually at the end of April or beginning of May each year. For this year’s date, refer to: Administrative dates and scored assessment schedule.

Schools receive 25% of their annual allocation of funding each term. Funding in Term 1 and 2 is indicative, calculated from the previous year’s enrolments. Following final enrolment at the VASS enrolment deadline, a school’s annual allocation is recalculated and Term 3 and 4 funding is adjusted accordingly.

Funding calculations

Schools are encouraged to treat VET funding holistically by allocating a pool of funding to VET for all students that includes:

• tuition funding, including VET Delivered to School Students funding and a portion of each VET student’s Core Learning Allocation Funding
• materials funding, which supplements this funding for consumable items
• Small Scale Core Funding Supplement, for schools with 400 or fewer enrolments in years 7 to 12.

The cost of VET varies between providers and delivery models. Schools have discretion to use their overall pool of VET funding flexibly to give all students access to appropriate VET.

Tuition funding

One full-time equivalent (FTE) enrolment in VET is 180 hours of delivery over the year. For each FTE enrolment in VET, schools are encouraged to allocate a portion of a student’s Core Student Learning Allocation funding toward VET. For a 1.0 FTE course enrolment in 2025, this equals $1,293 in mainstream schools and $1,077 in specialist schools.

All eligible VET courses are categorised into 1 of 6 funding bands for VET Delivered to School Students Funding, with different amounts for mainstream and specialist schools. A list of certificates in each of the 6 funding bands is available in the VET Delivered to School Students funding bands (XLSX) (staff login required). Together with the Core Student Learning Allocation, the VET Delivered to School Students funding will approximately cover tuition costs.

Each enrolment in a VET course can receive VET Delivered to School Students funding of up to 1.0 FTE, applied pro rata to the hours of enrolment for the year (for example 0.6 FTE for 108 hours). One student can enrol in and attract funding for enrolment in multiple VET courses. Schools can use the SRP budget planner (available through the SRP Portal (staff login required)) to estimate VET Delivered to School Students funding.

Funding errors

If schools believe there has been an error in the calculation of their VET funding allocation, they are required to submit an application for a funding correction. The process for submitting an application will be communicated to schools in July of each year.

Corrections to funding allocations will be considered if the department has made an error in the calculation of VET funding allocations.

Applications for funding corrections due to late or incorrect VASS enrolments on the part of the school will only be considered in exceptional circumstances that are outside the control of the school. These may include instances where schools have been impacted by natural disasters or other emergency situations, technical outages or the death or serious illness of VASS administrators.

Circumstances that will not be considered exceptional include routine staffing changes, inadequate staffing, lack of succession planning for exiting staff, or miscommunication with VET providers.

If a funding correction is approved, then a correction to the school’s allocation will be made and included in the Term 4 regular SRP cash grant payment.

Schools are required to submit an application for a funding correction form..

Applications for funding corrections close 29 July 2025.

Exceptions

While all eligible training is allocated pro-rata funding for an FTE enrolment of 180 hours per year, there are some exceptions:

• Certificate III in Music: The VCE VET program for this course is equivalent to 4 VCE units per year and attracts funding for 2.0 FTE (360 hours per year), applied pro rata to enrolments of less than 360 hours.
• Certificate II in Cookery: The VCAA has determined that 170 hours of delivery equates to 180 hours of VCE credit. Funding for this course is calculated as 170 hours equating to 1.0 FTE.

Materials funding

Each eligible enrolment in VET receives funding for the cost of materials. Funded materials are consumable items that are expended during training.

VET materials funding is allocated pro-rata for enrolments of up to 180 hours per VET certificate per year.

All eligible VET courses are grouped into 2 funding bands:

• high-cost certificate band: $450 pro-rata
• low-cost certificate band: $250 pro-rata.

Skill Sets are not eligible for materials funding.

Small Scale Core Funding Supplement

Additional funding is provided for schools that do not have sufficient student enrolments to offset VET costs. Schools with 400 or fewer total enrolments in years 7 to 12 are eligible for this funding.

Mainstream schools receive funding for each eligible FTE enrolment in VET of $1,293, up to a maximum of 15 enrolments. For schools with more than 200 enrolments in years 7 to 12, the rate of $1,293 is reduced by the excess over 200 multiplied by 6.43.

Specialist schools receive funding for each eligible FTE enrolment in VET of $1,077, up to a maximum of 15 enrolments. For schools with more than 200 enrolments in years 7 to 12, the rate of $1,077 is reduced by the excess over 200 multiplied by 5.35.

For example, if Local Mainstream College has 211 students in years 7 to 12, and 30 FTE enrolments in VET, funding is calculated as: 15 × (1293 − (6.43 × (211 − 200)).

Extended funding for select priority industry training

Under limited circumstances outlined in the Extended Funding application form (DOCX), students in Years 10, 11 and 12 may receive additional VET supplementary funding to complete 360 hours (2 × 180 hours) of a VET program in the priority industry areas of Building and Construction, and Clean Energy and Engineering.

The process for assessing student eligibility for this extended funding will be determined based on the student’s capacity to pursue intensive study and evidence of a clear pathway into these 2 priority industry areas. The funding applies to the following certificates:

• Certificate II in Building and Construction Pre-apprenticeship (Version 1.0)
• Certificate II in Construction Pathways
• Certificate II in Engineering Studies
• Certificate II in Electrotechnology (Pre-vocational)
• Certificate II in Electrotechnology (Career Start).

Students receiving funding for these courses will only receive one allocation of materials funding per year.

To apply for this funding, schools must first submit the Extended Funding application form to the Jobs, Skills and Pathways Manager in their area and demonstrate each student’s suitability for undertaking the accelerated course. Access to the additional 180 hours of funding is then made available via the Funding Corrections process. Schools are expected to work closely with their area Jobs, Skills and Pathways Manager in the development of the application.

Skill Set enrolment

Skill Sets include a limited number of Units of Competency (UoC), often being completed in a single day. Skill Sets are defined by national training packages as a single unit of competency or a combination of units of competency that link to a licensing or regulatory requirement, or a defined industry need. A full list of Skill Sets available for VDSS students is included below.

Skill Sets do not require the resources, for example, materials and consumable items, that are needed for students undertaking Certificates II and above. Therefore, an enrolment in a Skill Set should be recorded in the Victorian Assessment Software System (VASS) as a Skill Set and not as a Certificate II or III.

Skill Sets are not eligible for VET materials funding. If using the SRP budget planner (SRP portal) to estimate VET Delivered to School Students funding for budget planning purposes, enrolments must be entered as Skill Sets, where appropriate, for an accurate estimate of VET funding.

Parent payments

Schools may ask parents to make a general voluntary financial contribution towards VET. Schools cannot tie a student’s participation in a VET course or ability to meet secondary certificate requirements to this contribution but may decide to not offer a course with tuition costs that significantly exceed tuition funding.

For some VET certificates, students may be required to have certain equipment, tools, or clothing, beyond those covered by VET materials. Schools may invite families to purchase these items. If a parent does not provide or purchase the necessary items, the school must give the student access to the required items without cost. Schools are not required to provide students with items to own or keep.

For further information, refer to: Parent Payments.