Less than half the students who have enrolled at Evocca's Wollongong campus managed to graduate or complete their studies.
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The information comes as the Australian Skills Quality Authority launches an investigation into Evocca, a national private training provider.
A spokesperson for Evocca's Wollongong campus said of the 399 who had enrolled since it opened two years ago, 194 "have graduated or are progressing towards graduation".
When asked about drop-out rates, the spokesperson said: "There are a range of partially completed students ... To say a student who has cancelled, often for personal or work-related issues, is a drop-out is language we wouldn't use."
Former Evocca students who admitted to being lured by free iPads and "study now, pay later" promises, said the courses had left them with debt and no diplomas.
Two former Evocca Wollongong campus students said they were left owing tens of thousands of dollars after enrolling in courses that promised flexibility but delivered none.
"I was walking in Westfield Warrawong and I guess she [an Evocca College saleswoman] sucked me into it, it sounded good at the time ... I wanted to study but I just need something that can work around my kids," one said.
"I started studying, it was all good, then they got really pushy and didn't understand that I was a single parent with two small kids with no help from their father.
"They were ringing me about six times a day and it was too much as my kids are so little ... there were deadlines that I had to meet, it was really hard when daycare would be cancelled so it was impossible to study."
Another former student claimed courses involved supplying students with a list of assessments with strict deadlines along with a password to a website with little additional instruction or help.
"There were no classes, you could go into the centre, there were four tutors there but not everyone got help. So you sit there for two hours without help," the the ex-diploma of business student said. "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone ... I didn't finish my course because they weren't helpful."
A third former student said the college benefited from students dropping out.
"They target desperate people trying to get ahead, they load you up with too much work and when you drop out you still have to pay. I'm $25,000 in debt," he said.
"A lot of people are enrolled for ulterior motives, such as qualifying for the dole but they don't have to pay fees because it's covered by the government."
Evocca advertises its courses as "study now, pay later" with students able to defer fees through the government Fee Help program.
According to the federal government's MySkills website, of the 13,887 students enrolled at Evocca colleges nationwide only 19 were issued a qualification in 2012.
An Evocca spokesperson claimed graduate students were under-reported on the website as the college was only required to report graduates who were completely government funded.
This meant the majority of students went uncounted.
Additional figures obtained by the ABC place the graduation rate at 10 per cent with more than 20,000 students not completing their diploma courses.
The college would not respond to direct questions from the Mercury but instead issued a release.
It said the figure reported by the ABC was inaccurate and "the manner in which they were put forward was misleading".
The release denied staff qualifications were backdated and maintained iPads and laptops were provided on a loan scheme approved by the federal government.
Do you know more? Please contact our journalists at investigations@illawarramercury.com.au