The revelations come at the same time as the federal government attempts to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted public funding on the scandal-plagued vocational education sector.

This reporter enrolled himself in a workplace health and safety course at Alert Force, a private college based in Potts Point that has campuses around Australia.

"Hurry limited places!" an ad on the Alert Force website read. "Govt [sic] subsidies of up to 100% are available for eligible students."

The enrolment was completed after filling out a 30-second form where the only criteria for a scholarship was a box that identified whether or not a student was in social housing.

Moments later a text message was received announcing a successful enrolment with no verification process.

The scholarship, obtained in less than two minutes, is one of more than 200,000 "Smart and Skilled" scholarships on offer, costing taxpayers $48 million.

The NSW government launched the Smart and Skilled scholarship initiative last year in a bid to turn the sector around after 30,000 fewer students enrolled in TAFE and the federal government's program was acknowledged as a "disaster" by its own minister, Senator Scott Ryan.

But questions have been raised over what monitoring of the NSW scholarship program has occurred.

According to the NSW government's own Smart and Skilled fee administration policy the only evidence requirement for one of these new scholarships is the student's signature. A spokesman said students must also meet concession eligibility criteria such as Centrelink benefits.

A report released by the NSW government in July said there were up to 200 smart and skilled accredited private providers in Sydney alone.

The Nous review identified a "small number" of 18 providers who have been accredited under Smart and Skilled who "may be engaging in high-risk behaviour" and should be investigated.

The scholarship program allows for-profit providers to target vulnerable students who live in housing commission accommodation, the same market that was used by unscrupulous providers in the federal government's VET-FEE Help program to earn hundreds of millions of dollars by allegedly forging signatures and targeting illiterate, disabled customers.

Fairfax Media does not suggest that Alert Force has been targeting vulnerable students or is engaging in high risk behaviour.

The President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron, said he was concerned about the capacity of the NSW government to regulate the sector.

"It won't be long before the dodgies come in on it, it will take no time at all," he said. "While there are huge subsidies for for-profit providers, they will create loopholes and they will use them."

On Friday, a spokesman for NSW Skills Minister John Barilaro said the NSW government wanted to make it as easy as possible for students to get access to training but stringent checks are in place to make sure students are protected.

"In order to receive a scholarship under the social housing criteria a student must be in receipt of the welfare benefits, which are identified and outlined in the Fee Administration Policy," he said.

"The Smart and Skilled contract has strict enforceable sanctions for providers that are found to be non-compliant."

In August, Mr Barilaro said the program had changed people's lives after he announced that 28,000 scholarships had be taken up.

"The NSW government created Fee Free Scholarships to give people in our community who have a number of challenges to overcome – young people those in out-of-home care, in social housing, surviving domestic violence or those with a disability – free access to vocational training," Mr Barilaro said.

Alert Force declined to comment, citing its confidentiality agreement under Smart and Skilled.