A taxpayer-funded initiative to address a cybersecurity skills shortage has been labelled a "patch job" with an 80 per cent student dropout rate, the training hub winning an excellence award amid course compliance concerns, and a LEGO city promoted as a "highlight" that wasn't actually used.

TasTAFE received $1.5 million each from the federal and state governments which was used to establish the Cyber Innovation Training Hub, where the next generation of cybersecurity experts was going to be taught.

When student Tom saw the ad for a Certificate IV in Cyber Security in Hobart, he found it forward-looking: "We don't have jobs down here for this area. Australia is very lacking in it."

As one of the few students who didn't quit the course, he now believes it was a government-funded "patch j

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