The state government has terminated the contracts of 18 providers, and is set to recoup up to $50 million from the scandal-plagued sector.

It follows a spate of Education Department investigations that uncovered rorts, unauthorised subcontracting and poor quality training.

Four training providers were caught flouting a ban on incentives like free laptops for prospective students. Others scammed the system by enrolling the same students more than once, and by failing to provide training.

Training and Skills Minister Steve Herbert said he wanted to restore confidence in the sector.

"We are really in the middle of a very substantial attack on dodgy providers," he said.

"These providers have undermined the integrity of our training system and done untold damage to young people's perceptions of training."

More than 4000 students who were left in the lurch when their colleges were defunded have been referred to local TAFEs to continue their courses.

Over the past year, a special investigations unit in the Education Department has investigated 62 providers as part of a "quality blitz" aimed at cleaning up the sector.

For the first time, it has named and shamed registered training organisations that have had their contracts cancelled. They include Yum Production and True Blue Mates.

Many of the 18 providers are still registered to deliver training with the national regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, which has subjected them to regulatory scrutiny.

The state government has earmarked almost $42 million in funds for recovery, and a further $8.8 million is being withheld from providers while investigations continue.

A further 16 providers are being monitored, five have been imposed with restrictions and four have received termination notices.

Australian Council for Private Education and Training chief executive Rod Camm said he supported the crackdown, but similar initiatives should have been in place years ago, when the Victorian training market opened up.

He said the reputation of many quality training providers had been damaged and it had been a tough two years for the sector.

But Mr Camm said that the majority of private training colleges delivered high quality courses, with student satisfaction rates above 80 per cent.

The Opposition's training, skills and apprenticeships spokeswoman Steph Ryan said that while dodgy training providers needed to be weeded out, many people in the sector were questioning the government's motives.

"Labor is prosecuting an agenda to shut down private training providers in order to drive students back into TAFE, which has seen a 15 per cent drop in student enrolments since Daniel Andrews became Premier," she said.

She said that many providers delivered training in rural areas where TAFE was not accessible.

New state government rules ban people who have managed defunded training providers from working with providers that still receive state government funding.

The vocational education and training sector receives $1.2 billion in state government funds every year.

The federal government has also cracked down on the sector, which receives federal funding through the VET FEE-HELP scheme, which has blown out to $3 billion in taxpayer debt.

The training providers the state government has terminated its contracts with include:

MWT Institute

Management Institute of Australia No. 2

Berkeley College

Yum Production

Waterford College Pty Ltd

Education Access (Australia) Pty Ltd

Australian Management Academy

Heron Assess

Sher-E-Punjab Pty Ltd (Trading as South Pacific Institute)

Australian Learning Training and Education Centre

AVETA - Australian Vocational Education & Training Academy

National Training Centre of Australia Pty Ltd

Smart Connection Company P/L Smart Connection Training

Centre of Vocational Education P/L Cove Training

G2 Training P/L My Industry Support Services/Transport

Earthmoving and Construction Training Solutions

True Blue Mates

Train2Learn