ALMOST three quarters of unemployed Australians sent to a taxpayer funded training course last year remained jobless three months later.

The data exposes the extent to which taxpayers have been funding useless training courses which are not helping Australia’s unemployed get jobs.

Figures from the Department of Employment reveal that 71.3 per cent of job seekers who were sent to a vocational training course to gain work skills and qualifications in the last financial year, were still looking for work three months after finishing their course.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: Drops to 6.1 per cent in August

Assistant Minister for Education Luke Hartsuyker seized on the information as further justification for the Federal Government’s overhaul of the employment services system, which is costing taxpayers around $1.3 billion a year.

“The results show that amount being spent on training is not translating into real jobs for job seekers,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

“One of the complaints I have repeatedly heard from job seekers is that they are being sent on training for trainings’ sake.”

“This is a waste of job seekers’ time and taxpayers’ money,” he said.

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest also called for reform in his indigenous Jobs and Training Review, declaring the employment services system was expensive and could not “boast proud track records”.

“We must pay only on results, not process,” Mr Forrest said.

“You wouldn’t give a fox responsibility for the chicken coop. Similarly, allowing JSAs to authorise their own payments is commercially nonsensical.”

Tightened rules mean job service providers will now no longer be paid for placing unemployed Australians in courses that do not help them get a job.

Under the revamped system, job service agencies will only be eligible for receiving payments for placing an unemployed person in a training course of that job seeker is aged between 15 to 17 years, and attains a Certificate II or higher qualification.

Job seekers will also have obligations to Work for the Dole under the new system.