It pays to take your time

TERTIARY students should opt to pay course fees by instalment, not upfront, to minimise their losses if their training organisation shuts down.

Students should also make sure all assessments they hand in are marked and returned so they have a record of their results.

Tracy Kearney, chief executive of Prestige Service Training, which recently helped 125 former students of failed Australian School Based Traineeships Pty Ltd to finish their traineeships, says students who pay tuition fees upfront often lose out if their training provider collapses.

“Take the Careers Australia debacle, some students had paid the full amount [of their tuition costs] and the likelihood of them getting their money back, as a creditor, is not looking good,’’ Kearney says.

“Students should never pay more than $1500 in advance for any course. We actually prefer they do a payment plan over a 10-month period [for a year-long course].

Bailey Jones, 17, who has an intellectual disability and generalised anxiety disorder, was part way through a Certificate II in Retail with ASBT when it went bust last year. “It was pretty disruptive – it’s not all that easy just to swap to another [training provider],’’ his mother Katherine says.

Jones finished his training through Prestige Service Training and secured employment at Target.