To be eligible for a government subsidised place, you must meet the Victorian State Government eligibility criteria, which includes location, citizenship, age and education history, as outlined below. The program you have applied for must also be offering government subsidised places.
Location and citizenship
You must be physically present in Victoria for all of your studies. This includes attending training/classes that are delivered face-to-face on campus, and also being physically present in Victoria when accessing and studying course materials delivered by distance or online.
You must also be either:
- an Australian citizen, or
- an Australian Permanent Resident (holder of a permanent visa), or
- the holder of a Permanent Humanitarian visa (PHV), or
- a New Zealand citizen
You will be required to provide evidence of your citizenship or residency status before you can enrol, so make sure you can obtain original documents (or certified copies) that prove your citizenship or residency status.
Age and prior education
If you are 20 years of age or over as at 1 January in the year you start your program, you may be eligible if you are applying for a qualification higher than the qualification you have already completed, and you meet the other eligibility criteria. [This requirement will be waived if you are assessed as eligible for an exemption place for your programs.]
Higher qualifications obtained overseas that have not been formally assessed for Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) equivalency will not be included in this criteria.
- Applicants of any age whose existing highest qualification is a VCE, VCAL, International Baccalaureate Diploma, or an Australian senior secondary school certificate, may be eligible for a government subsidised place in a Certificate II level program or above.
Education history
To be eligible you:
- must not have started, or be due to start, more than two programs in a government subsidised place in the same calendar year, and
- must not be currently enrolled in two or more programs in government subsidised places at the same time, and
- must not have, in your lifetime, started two or more programs in a government subsidised place at the same AQF level (e.g. Advanced Diploma) as the program you are applying for [This requirement will be waived if you are assessed as eligible for an exemption place for your program] , and
- must not be currently enrolled in secondary school. This includes students enrolled in any government, non-government, independent, catholic or home school. School-based apprentices and trainees are exempt from this criteria.