Teachers and education advocates are warning of shonky operators within the private training college sector, saying the Federal Government needs to do more to get rid of "spruikers" manipulating and misleading students.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), which regulates Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), says it has received almost 4,000 complaints and conducted 3,000 audits since it was established in 2011.

There are more than 4,500 private training colleges in Australia and the number has been growing since the Federal Government extended student loans to the vocational sector.

But not everyone thinks the regulator is doing a good job, with teachers, advocates and other colleges telling the ABC calls to ASQA over quality have been falling on deaf ears.

ASQA chief commissioner Chris Robinson said some of their investigations could be lengthy but felt they had sufficient resources.

The Government has allocated an extra $68 million to the authority and vowed to clean up the training industry, but many in the sector say it could do more to improve processes.

In particular, private colleges are audited when they open but only every five years after that or in response to a complaint.

The method used to assess if applicants are "fit and proper" to run a college - and not formerly discredited owners - is a tick-a-box form that is not routinely checked.

There is also criticism that while ASQA regulates colleges it is the Federal Education Department that administers the VET-FEE-HELP student loans spurring growth in the industry.

'Spruikers' misleading vulnerable students, advocate says

Sally Thompson said she was offended both as an educator and Footscray resident when she saw disadvantaged students being recruited to training companies outside her local Centrelink office.

Ms Thompson is the chief executive of Adult Learning Australia, the peak body for adult and community education.

She said the promoted courses were expensive and not appropriate for long-term unemployed people with high needs.

"Our members often deal with people with quite low skills; they often deal with people with English as a second language, people with literacy difficulties and they've been telling us for a long time that they're just inundated with these kinds of spruikers," she said.

"The spruikers tend to hang out in places where they think marginalised people will be."

Ms Thompson took a copy of a flier and was upset to find the company was falsely advertising free training courses with a free laptop as an inducement.

"I just thought they were really highly misleading and designed to fool people into purchasing a product under false pretences," she said.

"There were very big letters saying 'zero fees upfront' - no mention at all that the person will be hit with a debt of $10,000 at the end of this program."

A small asterisk indicated enrolment was subject to being eligible for VET-FEE-HELP training loans.

"Now most people who are English as a second language learners, or most people outside the field, wouldn't know what VET-FEE-HELP was, much less [that] you'll be saddled with a $10,000 debt.

"I thought these were quite outrageous and I thought some of the claims about the possible jobs people could get here were really quite manipulative as well."

The fliers claimed students could become an assistant manager in any industry.

"Now the chances of someone who is unemployed doing a six-month, very low amount of hours course and then ending up as an assistant manager in an industry is really nil to none," Ms Thompson said.

"I felt that was really deeply misleading."

Ms Thompson said even people who worked in the industry found it complex and were often unaware of the network of marketing companies recruiting students to other training organisations.

Ms Thompson filed a formal complaint with ASQA in July. It was received but she has heard nothing about the investigation.

"My belief is the Government has created a honey pot of public money and they've set up a very small bureaucracy to deal with the rush of people heading in to gather that money," she said.

Company's website ripped off twice

Boyd Sparrow and his partner set up distance training college Sand Goanna in 2009 because they wanted to get quality employees for their tourism business.

Their business name and information has been misappropriated twice by unscrupulous companies.

"We've had a couple of providers that have gone to our website, copied our whole website, then pasted our website onto another website, then advertised our courses for VET-FEE-HELP," he said.

ASQA boss Chris Robinson says some of their investigations could be lengthy but they have sufficient resources. ( ABC TV )

"The reason we caught it out is we don't actually have VET-FEE-HELP funding."

The company had to get lawyers involved to get other companies to cease using their name.

It did not stop their reputation being damaged among employers.

They now have to scan the internet every day to check their details have not been stolen.

"If it's happening to us then it's happening to multiple RTO's out there."

Mr Sparrow said ASQA had gone some way to tightening up the industry but more could be done.

"It's common knowledge that they're under-resourced," he said.

A particular problem was that ASQA did not control VET-FEE-HELP, which is administered by the Federal Department of Education.

"When it comes to funding and getting payments that's a separate government organisation and I guess the problem is it falls outside ASQA's jurisdiction.

"We have a few providers in the industry at the moment that are doing the wrong thing and as a result it reflects poorly on the people doing the right thing."

350 colleges cancelled, suspended or refused registration: ASQA

Mr Robinson said the regulator has cancelled, suspended or refused the registration of 350 colleges since 2011.

"We've been very busy and we've taken strong actions against that minority of RTOs that are poorly compliant with the required standards,'' he said.

"I would say the training sector is in better shape than it was in the past."

Mr Robinson said one third of complaints were dealt with inside a month, one quarter went through a lengthy investigation process and one quarter were unsubstantiated.

Sometimes people were unhappy with the length of the investigation or the final outcome.

He said the regulator had more than 70 audit staff and brought in extras when needed.

Mr Robinson said ASQA could audit a college at any time, not just after five years.

"In fact increasingly we audit people outside of the registration cycle," he said.

"When we have complaints about RTOs or other concerns about them we can go in and audit them straight away and at any time during their registration. Some RTOs we will audit several times."

He said the fit and proper person declaration form was a legally binding document.

"ASQA applies a risk-based approach to assessing fit and proper person declaration responses," Mr Robinson said.

"If through an assessment or other means ASQA becomes aware that information on the form may be deliberately false, misleading or missing it will take action."

The Government is also tightening up rules around VET-FEE-HELP.

"We have powers too which are going to be increased shortly to be able to make sure they're dealing with VET-FEE-HELP in a proper way so that proper information is disclosed to students and they know what they're signing up to," Mr Robinson said.