I said it back in 2014/15 during the VET Fee scam and I’ll say it again. Many of these private training organisations are frauds who rip off students and the government. Most of their training is useless. Close them down.
At least 30,000 people have lost their qualifications in the past year as the regulator cracks down on Australia’s shonky vocational education and training providers.
Since late 2024, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has cancelled the registrations of 11 training organisations and voided diplomas, certificates and statements of attainment that providers had issued.
Affected graduates had completed courses including early childhood, aged care to community services, disability, first aid and building and construction, with courses costing as much as $20,000.
ASQA also deregistered an additional four providers, however graduates have not yet been notified that their qualifications were cancelled, the regulator said on Thursday.
More than 144 providers remained under investigation by ASQA’s enforcement team over “serious matters”, the regulator said.
Deregistered providers included Luvium, trading as Australia Education & Career College, where more than 7,300 graduates had their certificates voided, IIET (6,800 graduates), SPES Education Pty Ltd (4,200 graduates), Arizona College (3,500 graduates) and Gills College (3,300 graduates).
ASQA said it was still considering the legitimacy of some of the qualifications.
It comes after the federal government announced $37.8m to improve the quality of VET in 2023, including a new dedicated unit at ASQA and a tip-off line.
Since 2024, about half of the 3,127 tip-offs the regulator has received were about VET providers that offer courses for international students – even though they make up just 20% of all providers.
However, just two of the 11 providers ASQA have cancelled were registered for overseas students – IIET and Gills College.
Higher education consultant Claire Field said the VET sector was eager to see strong regulatory action against non-compliant providers but cancelling student qualifications was an escalation for ASQA.
“In cases where students have been issued qualifications without doing the requisite study, they should be offered the chance to undergo an independent skills assessment,” she said.
“If they can’t demonstrate the skills required, then their qualifications should be withdrawn.”
This month, two graduate students of Sydney’s Gills College – Dikshit Khadka and Sandeep Kaur – sought to challenge the cancellation of their qualifications in kitchen management and ageing support at the administrative review tribunal.
Kaur paid between $2,000 and $3,000 in cash to Gills College for a certificate IV. Gills had its registration cancelled in November 2024 after ASQA found it had not provided the training and assessment necessary to award qualifications.