Asylum Seeker Vocation Education Training Scheme Expanded to More Visa Categories

The ASRC [Asylum Seeker Resource Centre] ASVET team is excited and delighted to announce that the Victorian State government has expanded the program’s eligibility to include all visa types – effective immediately (see extract from official notice below).

The Asylum Seeker Vocational Education and Training (ASVET) program is a Victorian State government initiative which until recently, only allowed people seeking asylum and temporary refugees holding a BVE SHEV and TPV to access Vocational Education and Training at domestic concession rates.

This is a significant systemic change that will positively impact so many people. Many of whom have for so long been excluded from education and training due to the prohibitive cost of international student rates, applicable to those people holding visas that weren’t eligible for ASVET.

It’s been a long campaign of advocacy and lobbying by the ASRC. Over the years, ASRC CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis and ASRC Innovation Hub Director, Abiola Ajetomobi regularly advocated for the inclusion of people holding other Bridging visa types to the Minister for Education and Training. The ASVET team kept the issue on the table with the Victorian Department of Education and Training staff (and later the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions) in our bi-annual reports and at every meeting forum and workshop; finally, we have arrived at a fantastic result for our community!

We applaud and thank the Victorian Government for implementing this enormous systemic change and giving people a chance to engage and participate in education training that leads to empowerment and a future with dignity.

Expansion of eligibility for the Asylum Seeker VET Program:

The Asylum Seeker VET program is changing from only allowing access for individuals who hold a particular visa or visa subclass from a specific list. Instead, the program is now available to more asylum seekers in a more flexible way.

Who is now eligible?

From 1 July 2023, eligibility to participate in the Asylum Seeker VET program is for individuals or dependents of individuals, who:

– hold any humanitarian, protection, or refugee visa in Australia, or

– have applied for a humanitarian, protection or refugee visa and hold a

bridging visa for this purpose.

– have made an application under s.417 or s.48b of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) which is yet to be determined, and and hold a bridging visa

Find out more here.