Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support the measures in the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2015, and I support the amendment moved by the shadow minister. These measures are designed to improve regulatory oversight of the sector. Regrettably, the actions of unscrupulous registered training organisations and brokers have had serious effects on vulnerable individuals. People have been left with large debts and no qualification at all, or useless qualifications. It is nothing short of a national scandal that the government must deal with as a matter of urgency to ensure that the protection of students is prioritised.

There has been an explosion of cases of unscrupulous registered training organisations preying on vulnerable students and signing them up for large VET FEE-HELP debts. In many cases, the students are not even aware that they have signed up for a course, let alone debts of tens of thousands of dollars. The problem is exacerbated by registered training organisations employing brokers to recruit students on their behalf and then attempting to distance themselves from the actions of the brokers. This bill takes some steps to put responsibility on the registered training organisations for the actions of their brokers. There is also a change to allow more rapid response to quality and standards issues by the minister and the regulator. The growth of VET FEE-HELP has exceeded all projections, with more than $1.6 billion allocated last year. The Grattan Institute has warned that 40 per cent of vocational loans may never be repaid. This becomes a financial burden to the Commonwealth, and it needs to be addressed.

The education industry in Australia is highly fragmented. There are almost 5,000 registered training organisations that offer vocational education and over 11,000 that offer language training and other educational services. The number has been growing since the federal government extended student loans to the vocational sector. As reported by the ABC, teachers and education advocates are warning of shonky operators within the private training college sector, saying the federal government needs to do more to get rid of spruikers manipulating and misleading students. The Australian Skills Quality Authority, which regulates the registered training organisations, says it has received almost 4,000 complaints and conducted 3,000 audits since it was established in 2011—4,000 complaints in less than four years, an astonishing record of failure. Many teachers, advocates and other colleges have indicated that the complaints being referred to the authority seem to be falling on deaf ears. The authority has stated that some of their investigations could be lengthy.

In a 19 October 2014 ABC report, Sally Thompson, the chief executive of Adult Learning Australia, the peak body for adult and community education, said she was offended both as an educator and a Footscray resident when she saw disadvantaged students being recruited to training companies outside her local Centrelink office. Ms Thompson stated:

Our members often deal with people with quite low skills; they often deal with people with English as a second language, people with literacy difficulties and they've been telling us for a long time that they're just inundated with these kinds of spruikers … Spruikers hang out in places where they think marginalised people will be … we've had a couple of providers that have gone to our website, copied our whole website … then advertised our courses for VET-FEE-HELP … I just thought they were really misleading and designed to fool people into purchasing a product under false pretences … There were very big letters saying 'zero fees upfront' - no mention at all that the person will be hit with a debt of $10,000 at the end of this program … Now most people who are English as a second language learners … wouldn't know what VET-FEE-HELP was, much less that you'll be saddled with a $10,000 debt.

Mr Boyd Sparrow and his partner set up distance training college Sand Goanna in 2009 because they wanted to get quality employees for their tourism business. Their business name and information has been misappropriated twice by unscrupulous companies. They stated:

We've had a couple of providers that have gone to our website, copied our whole website, then pasted our website onto another website, then advertised our courses for VET-FEE-HELP," he said.

"The reason we caught it out is we don't actually have VET-FEE-HELP funding."

The ABC reported:

The company had to get lawyers involved to get other companies to cease using their name.

It did not stop their reputation being damaged among employers.

They now have to scan the internet every day to check their details have not been stolen.

What a disgraceful situation.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority Chief Commissioner Chris Robinson has stated that the regulator has cancelled, suspended or refused the registration of 350 colleges since 2011. The ABC reported in 2014 that childcare centres have now also started using unofficial blacklists of training providers that they will not use because the graduate quality is so low. The ABC reported:

There has been an explosion in the number of trainers offering Certificate IIIs and diplomas in childcare after the Government made qualifications mandatory.

Childcare centre operators have told the ABC many operate as "tick and flick" organisations where students effectively buy their qualification.

In many cases it has left students, who spent up to $4,500 on courses, unsuitable for employment.

Operators said children also lost out, with young graduates being unable to properly interact with infants during critical formative years.

Students and operators provided the ABC with the names of at least six organisations with questionable training practices.

These include offering the year-long Certificate III course in eight weeks, admitting to monitoring student placements by phone and online courses without sufficient supervision for work placements.

However, all still remain accredited training organisations with the Government regulator …

In 2014 the authority has cancelled the registration of one childcare course provider—the Community Training College in Queensland.

ASQA said it has an ongoing strategic industry review of training for the childcare and early learning sector.

It told the Productivity Commission inquiry into childcare it audited 46 trainers and found four out of five did not meet regulations—

four out of five!—

After being given the chance to fix problems, one in five still did not meet the standard.

It is little wonder, then, that the childcare workers union, United Voice, has called for a national inquiry into childcare training. The ABC reported:

United Voice said it was time for a national investigation into childcare training.

National secretary David O'Byrne said too many providers ran "tick and flick'' courses where poor training was done at high cost.

He said it was clear ASQA's regulation was not working.

"We want an immediate review across the country of Registered Training Organisations providing training in the early years," he said.

"It's not acceptable every couple of years, or when there's a complaint, to go and investigate a company.

"Families, they want to know when they place their children in these early learning environments that their children are being supported, that they're being educated and cared for.

"A child's brain development is crucial. The early years are the most important years."

Indeed, they are.

Last month a private college in Sydney, Australian College Broadway, was accused of claiming federal student training loans for pupils without appropriate skills. Former staff allege that, if students wanted to leave the college, the college hampered their attempts to withdraw from a course by either tearing up a letter or ignoring phone calls. The college, which offers hairdressing, beauty therapy and make-up courses, rejected the allegations.

However, young single mother Sammantha Saxton said she graduated from the college without the appropriate skills and has had to go back to TAFE and start again. Ms Saxton now has a $33,000 VET FEE-HELP debt from the college. Her employer said Samantha was unable to do many things she would expect from a graduate. Ms Saxton said she complained at least 10 times about the quality of the training during the course but nothing was done to rectify the situation. That college has received more than $50 million from federal government HECS style loans training since 2009.

The ABC has also reported:

Unscrupulous training colleges are targeting people with disabilities and the homeless in order to cash in on government education funding.

The ABC has obtained evidence some colleges are recruiting people with intellectual disabilities to costly diploma-level courses funded with expensive VET-FEE-HELP training loans.

However, this training is totally unsuited as those being targeted have low education and skill levels and high care needs, which means they will be unlikely to ever complete the courses. The ABC reported:

… marketeers have also been spotted outside Centrelink offices and referral services for the homeless and drug addicted.

There are also reports of telephone agents obtaining student details from job websites or disability programs in order to target them for new enrolments.

Students can borrow up to $90,000 under VET-FEE-HELP loans which they start to repay once they earn more than $53,000.

That is, $53,000 a year.

Jacqui Whitehead, mother of 24-year-old Lukus who has a diagnosed intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, became suspicious when Lukus was recruited to do a business course at Aspire College after being targeted outside Centrelink. The Adelaide man completed year 10 with a special life skills qualification for people with a disability. Once Lukus was struggling, Mrs Whitehead rang the school to inform them he had a disability and to seek extensions for his assignments. The college's response was to sell Lukus another course, and he now has an $18,000 VET FEE-HELP debt.

Single mother Rebecca Warfield was signed up to a $40,000 hairdressing course with a Sydney based training school. Months after signing, and being unable to attend classes due to personal issues, she went to see her accountant and was advised she had a $27,000 debt and the college was chasing her for $10,000. She does not read contracts because she has dyslexia; however, had she been able to read the fine print, she would have known that she did not actually enrol in a hairdressing course but rather a theory based salon management course—a distinction easily lost on Ms Warfield because of her dyslexia.

In my home state of Victoria, the movement of resources and students away from TAFE and into private training colleges of dubious and variable quality has been a disaster. In a media release of 25 February this year, the Victorian government stated that:

A number of employers in the automotive industry have been disqualified from hiring apprentices, following a Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) investigation into low quality training.

Minister for Training and Skills Steve Herbert said the disqualifications followed an investigation of 115 employers in the automotive industry that checked whether 160 apprentices were being properly supervised and trained. The quality of training plummeted under the former Liberal Government’s cuts to the vocational education and training (VET) system.

Eight employers in Dandenong, Burwood, Albion, Campbellfield, Mitcham, Preston, Sunshine North and Glen Iris were disqualified from hiring apprentices. 60 training contracts between employers and apprentices were cancelled and a further 39 contracts were voluntarily cancelled.

The apprentices were all enrolled with a common training provider and those wanting to continue their apprenticeship have been offered support to continue their training with another provider.

Problems uncovered by the VRQA investigation included:

The Andrews Labor Government’s recently announced Review of Quality Assurance in Victoria’s VET System will recommend a new framework, so all training providers that deliver government-funded training meet quality standards. This will feed into the Mackenzie Review which will recommend a model of sustainable, high quality training across the training sector.

A compliance report by Victoria's education department showed that during 2013 payments were placed on hold for 29 RTOs until 'issues identified' were investigated. Private colleges have been exposed for offering free iPads and laptops for students to sign on to taxpayer-subsidised courses they often do not complete. The value of HECS-style loans for vocational students has blown out from $325 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion last year—double the expected rate of growth. Enrolments in these diplomas surged by 170 per cent from 2012 to 2013 and by a further 195 per cent the following year. The 56,000 extra enrolments equates to $770 million in federal government loans.

Whilst the bill is designed to improve oversight of the sector, it does not address the damage to individuals that has already occurred or propose action to engage with the community to minimise future problems. The flowering of second-rate training and scams we have witnessed has been a disgrace. We need to take concerted action to improve and protect standards and make sure that the qualifications and training actually lead to work.

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