The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority ('VRQA') is Victoria’s education and training regulator. It makes sure schools, training providers, and other education settings meet minimum standards and protect the safety and wellbeing of students, apprentices, and trainees.
What types of complaints can you make?
The Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority looks into problems with certain education and training services in Victoria. You can complain to the VRQA if you're worried that a provider is breaking rules, failing to meet required standards, or putting students at risk.
Below are the types of complaints the VRQA can take, along with who it applies to and examples to help you decide.
- Schools (non-government) not meeting registration standards: You can complain if a registered independent school is breaking the rules for how schools must be run in Victoria. These rules cover things like student safety, building standards, record keeping, discipline policies, and how the school supports students.
- Child safety breaches in any school: All schools in Victoria must meet Child Safe Standards. You can complain if you think a school isn't doing enough to keep students safe and the school has failed to respond.
- Poor conditions in school boarding premises: You can complain if the place where students live during the school term is unsafe, unclean, or unhealthy.
- Problems in an apprenticeship or traineeship: You can complain if your employer isn’t following your training contract, or you’re being mistreated during your apprenticeship or traineeship. This includes safety, training access, supervision, or being underpaid.
- Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) not meeting standards: You can complain if a VRQA-registered training provider isn’t delivering the course properly. For example, if trainers are unqualified or you never receive your certificate.
- Note: Most RTOs are regulated by ASQA (the national body), not VRQA. You can only complain here if the RTO is registered solely in Victoria, or in Victoria and WA.
- Senior secondary providers (non-school): You can complain about community centres or other non-school programs (like VCAL or foundation programs) that fail to deliver proper teaching or student support.
- Home schooling not meeting requirements: You can complain if a registered home-schooling parent isn’t providing regular, effective education.
- Student exchange organisations: You can complain if a VRQA-registered exchange program places a student in unsafe housing or doesn’t provide proper support.
- Misconduct by VRQA staff or auditors: You can complain if a VRQA staff member or contractor behaves unprofessionally or fails to follow proper process during an investigation, audit, or registration review.
The VRQA cannot take complaints about:
- Public (government) schools
- Catholic schools Individual teacher behaviour
- Fees, refunds, or charges
- Bullying between students (unless systemic)
- Employment or HR issues
- University or TAFE complaints
- Most RTOs (national providers)
- Childcare or kindergarten issues
- Wage disputes
- Unsafe workplaces (for apprentices)
- Personal disagreements or academic progress
Jurisdiction and limitations:
- The VRQA only handles complaints about Victorian providers that it regulates.
- Complaints must usually be made within 12 months of the issue.
- For apprenticeships, this is often within 30 days of finishing your job.
- The VRQA can refuse to investigate if the complaint is trivial, vague, outside its powers, or already decided elsewhere.
- It may refer your complaint to another body and will inform you if that happens.
- What matters most: The VRQA focuses on whether a school or provider has broken a rule, not on personal disputes, preferences, or one-off disagreements.
- Your complaint must show a clear breach of standards or obligations.
Who can you make a complaint against?
The VRQA can only accept complaints about certain people or organisations involved in education, training, or apprenticeships in Victoria. These include:
- Schools and education providers (if registered with the VRQA): You can complain about:
- Independent schools that are registered with the VRQA
- School boarding premises (e.g. unsafe or unhygienic boarding conditions)
- Non-school senior secondary providers (e.g. community centres running VCE or VCE-VM)
- Student exchange organisations registered with the VRQA
- Home schooling arrangements, if the parent/guardian isn’t providing proper instruction
- Teachers or school staff, in certain cases: You can only complain about a teacher, principal, or staff member if the issue relates to the school’s breach of the Minimum Standards or Child Safe Standards. You cannot complain about a teacher’s behaviour, performance, or misconduct.
- Apprenticeship and traineeship employers (if registered with the VRQA): You can complain about an employer who is part of a VRQA-registered training contract. This includes trades employers (e.g. carpentry, plumbing, electrical), childcare centres, or office-based employers with trainees. The complaint must be about a breach of the training contract.
- VRQA-registered training organisations (RTOs): You can complain about a training organisation only if it is registered with the VRQA. These providers usually deliver training only in Victoria, or in Victoria and Western Australia.
The VRQA cannot investigate complaints about:
- Government schools (public schools)
- Catholic schools
- Individual teachers (performance or misconduct)
- Training providers not registered with VRQA
- Employers not on a VRQA training contract
- Universities and higher education providers
- Kindergartens or early childhood services
Are you eligible to make a complaint?
Anyone connected to Victorian schools, home schooling, training organisations, or apprenticeships and traineeships can make a complaint to the VRQA. This includes:
- Parents, guardians or carers of students
- Students (past, present or prospective)
- Mature minors
- Adult students
- Apprentices or trainees
- Employers of an apprentice or trainee
- Industry representatives
- Advocates (e.g. legal reps, social workers)
- Members of the public
You are usually expected to try resolving the issue with the provider first. This might involve:
- Speaking to the teacher, trainer, or school leader.
- Writing to the provider using their complaints process.
- Requesting a meeting to discuss your concerns.
If you haven’t taken these steps, the VRQA can still help, especially if there are good reasons for not doing so.
You can complain on behalf of someone else if you’re:
- A parent, guardian or carer
- Another student
- An advocate (e.g. legal rep, social worker)
- A concerned member of the public
The VRQA may ask for the affected person’s consent before investigating, unless there are serious safety concerns.
The VRQA may not accept your complaint if:
- You’re not directly involved or don’t have relevant information
- The complaint is about a government or Catholic school (you’ll be referred elsewhere)
- You want to stay anonymous but haven’t provided enough detail
- You haven’t raised the issue with the school or provider first
- You’re complaining on someone’s behalf without permission or legal authority
Privacy:
The VRQA follows strict privacy laws and will only use your personal information when necessary or legally allowed. It protects your data from misuse or unauthorised access.
Procedural fairness: If a person or provider is accused of wrongdoing, the VRQA will:
- Base decisions on clear, reliable evidence
- Tell them what they’re being accused of and share the evidence
- Give them a chance to respond
Where possible, the VRQA will also:
- Let them know if a report includes negative information
- Include their response fairly in the report
What can this body do to help?
VRQA can:
- Enforce compliance with standards: If a provider breaks the rules, the VRQA can require them to fix the problem.
- Site visits by authorised officers: VRQA officers can visit schools, training providers, boarding houses, or workplaces to check if they’re following the rules. Visits might happen because of:
- A complaint
- A scheduled check-up
- Concerns raised during a training program
- Investigations: The VRQA can investigate a complaint by asking the provider for their side and reviewing the facts. They’ll then tell both sides what they found and what needs to change.
- Example: If you’re in a dispute as an apprentice, the VRQA might visit your workplace and speak with the people involved.
- Reviews or audits: The VRQA can do regular or extra reviews to check if a provider is following the rules. This can include:
- Looking at documents and policies
- Speaking to staff
- Requiring fixes if problems are found
- Rectification plans: If rules have been broken, the VRQA can give the provider a written plan with actions and deadlines to fix the issue.
- Adding conditions to registration: The VRQA can put limits on a provider’s operations, such as:
- Only allowing certain activities
- Blocking new student enrolments
- Adding temporary rules during an investigation
- Public notices: The VRQA can require a provider to inform parents or the public if they’ve broken the rules.
- Enforceable undertakings: A provider can agree to take specific actions in a formal, legally binding agreement with the VRQA.
- Suspension or cancellation: If a provider doesn’t improve, the VRQA can:
- Temporarily suspend their registration
- Cancel it entirely
- Sanctions: To prevent future issues, the VRQA can:
- Remove an employer’s approval to take on apprentices or trainees
- Cancel a training contract
- Helping resolve disputes: Sometimes, problems between a person and a provider can be resolved through informal negotiation, with or without help from the VRQA.
- Decisions in apprenticeship/traineeship disputes: If there’s a dispute about a training contract, the VRQA can:
- Make a decision based on written submissions
- Hold a hearing and issue a binding outcome
(This only applies to apprenticeship/traineeship contracts.)
The VRQA cannot:
- Award compensation or damages.
- Force someone to apologise.
- Order a refund.
- Take action against individual staff or teachers (this is handled by other bodies).
How to prepare your complaint:
To make a complaint to the VRQA, it must be in writing, and ideally submitted within 12 months of when you first became aware of the issue. If you can’t submit it in writing due to language or accessibility reasons, the VRQA can help you.
What to include in your complaint:
To help the VRQA understand and assess your complaint, try to include:
- Who your complaint is about (name of the school, training provider, employer, or individual, with contact details if possible).
- What course or training you are (or were) doing, if relevant.
- What happened. Describe the issue in detail.
- How it affected you.
- What steps you’ve taken to resolve it, such as raising it with the provider.
- How the provider responded, if they did.
- What outcome you’re hoping for.
- Any supporting documents, like emails, enrolment records, or meeting notes.
(You can email these to vrqa@education.vic.gov.au)
Personal information:
When submitting a complaint, you’ll be asked to include your:
- Name and contact details (phone, email)
- Your connection to the provider (e.g. student, parent, employer)
If you prefer to stay anonymous, you can do so, but it may limit how much the VRQA can investigate. You can also speak to them anonymously before deciding whether to make a formal complaint.
If you do give your name, the VRQA will normally need to share it with the provider to ensure fairness, but they will ask for your permission first. In some cases, the VRQA may still investigate without revealing your identity, though that may limit what actions they can take or what updates they can give you.
Privacy: Your personal information is protected by law. The VRQA will only share it if it’s necessary to manage the complaint or if required by law (e.g. by a court or tribunal).
Be honest and clear:
- Don’t include anything false or misleading.
- If you’re unsure about a detail or can’t remember something, that’s okay, just say so.
- You’ll also need to fill in a short security code before submitting your complaint online.
Lodging your complaint and next steps:
How to submit your complaint: You can send your written complaint to the VRQA in one of the following ways:
- Online: Lodge your complaint through the State Register.
- Email: vrqa@education.vic.gov.au
- Post:
Manager, Complaints Unit
Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA)
GPO Box 2317
Melbourne VIC 3001 - Phone (for questions or help): (03) 9637 2806
What happens after you submit: If you include your contact details, the VRQA will:
- Acknowledge your complaint within 5 business days.
- Check if it can be investigated.
- Confirm the details with you in writing.
- Decide how to proceed. This might include an investigation, audit, or review.
- Let you know if they cannot take action.
If they investigate:
- The provider will be told about your complaint and asked to respond.
- VRQA will assess the information, decide on the outcome, and inform both you and the provider of their decision.
- They will only collect or share personal information if necessary or legally required.
Tips to keep things on track:
- Keep a copy of your complaint.
- Try to include everything upfront.
- Let the VRQA know if your contact details or situation changes.
- Most complaints are resolved within 45 days.
More information:
Refer to the factsheet provided below for more information.
