The federal government will announce an overhaul of the vocational student loans scheme, and job-hunting website, SEEK Ltd
(ASX:SEK) is concerned.
Over the last few years, unscrupulous private colleges have been luring vulnerable students into signing up for courses they’re unlikely to finish, and causing these students to take on large VET FEE-HELP debts to fund these courses.
Under the proposed new scheme, all provider education providers have to re-apply to be eligible. The government says this will save taxpayers $7 billion over the next four years.
SEEK is particularly concerned about the fact that the new scheme will prevent approved education providers from using “brokers”, and that its education arm, SEEK Learning, could fall within the definition of “broker”. That is, the impact of these changes will be negative for the company.
However, the company says SEEK Learning is only 4% of its revenue, and 1% of EBITDA in the context of the entire SEEK Group, according to FY16 results.
SEEK posted a net profit of $399.4 million at 30 June 2016.
