Home schooling and funded VET courses

Children cannot be registered for home schooling and enrolled in a government-subsidised vocational education and training (VET) course at the same time.

If your child is under 17 years of age and you wish to enrol them in a government-subsidised VET course:

  • Find a registered training organisation (RTO) that provides the course your child is interested in and has a place to enrol your child.
  • Contact your local Department of Education Regional Office to seek an exemption from schooling to participate in approved education and training.
  • When contacting the Regional Office:
    • You may be asked to give some details of the course to support the Regional Director’s decision. The Regional Director considers each exemption application separately and any information you provide may help in this process.
    • You will receive a written exemption if the Regional Director approves your application. This is your record that you can then show to the RTO to support the enrolment. The RTO should not enrol your child until they see that an exemption has been issued by the Regional Director.
  • Once you have the exemption from the Regional Director, contact us to cancel your child's home schooling registration, and then enrol your child in the VET course.

After your child has completed the VET course, you can reapply for home schooling registration if they are still under 18 years of age.

For more information, see:

If your child is aged 17 years:

  • Find a registered training organisation that provides the course your child is interested in and has a place to enrol your child.
  • Contact us to cancel your child's home schooling registration.
  • An exemption is not required.

If you wish to maintain your child's registration while they complete a VET course, you will need to pay the full course fees.

For advice that is specific to your circumstances, contact our Home Schooling Unit:

Find a course and check your eligibility

Government support is available for young people who wish to complete VET qualifications.

To find VET courses, including government-subsidised courses, visit the Victorian Skills Gateway:

To find out if your child is eligible for government-subsidised training, see: