campusreview. com. au
VET & TAFE
Shut’ em down
Stakeholders call for swift, tough action against dodgy private providers.
By James Wells
Online VET provider Open Universities Australia and the federal opposition are calling for dodgy private training providers to be shut down and prosecuted.
This follows recent testimony before a Senate inquiry into private VET providers that gave evidence the sector is poorly regulated.
Sharon Bird, shadow minister for vocational education, says government is not acting quickly enough to weed out unscrupulous providers, to the detriment of students and the sector.
“ They’ re not acting quickly enough and with enough teeth to send a strong message out to the sector that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated,” Bird says.“ It’ s just preying on the most vulnerable people in an unscrupulous manner and it must stop.”
Bird says the unethical behaviours that a small portion of the private training sector engage in include recruitment officers helping students with language and literacy tests, enticing students into a course that is clearly beyond their ability, and not being clear with students on the debt they’ ll be taking on if they sign up.
She says regulations and regulatory bodies are in place but must be used effectively.
“ The regulations need to be [ applied ] in a quick and timely manner and they need to be public, so the message is out in our communities to keep an eye out for this sort of practice,” Bird says.“ The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has made it clear they have some investigations underway, but we’ ve been waiting a couple of months now for the outcome.”
OUA chief executive Paul Wappett says that while government must act swiftly, students must also make sure they do not fall into traps. He says students should ask salespeople some simple questions before signing up for a training scheme.
“[ Ask ] are you an agent acting for the organisation?” Wappett says.“ Are you an employee of the organisation? How are you remunerated? What sort of support am I going to get? Is there a cooling off period? Things along those lines that just would be part of a lot of consumer transactions.”
He adds that government must ensure the Australian Skills Quality Authority is adequately resourced so it can do its job, and should consider capping VET fees to prevent students being overcharged.
“ Certain diplomas might be priced at about $ 4000 or $ 5000 by one provider but at $ 15,000 plus by another provider,” Wappett says.“ They’ re the same qualification according to the same national training package. There’ s some tightening up that the government probably will be looking at that might have include maximum prices that students can be charged.”
Robert Simms, Greens higher education spokesman, agrees with strengthening ASQA’ s regulatory reach and says the growth of a for-profit private VET sector means more students will be saddled with debt. The business model of these for-profit providers revolves around maximising profit at the expense of education quality, Simms says.
“ The Greens believe for-profit education providers have no place in Australia, but if they must exist they need to be scrupulously regulated,” he says.“ The government has indicated they are keen to see an expansion in the role of private colleges. We need to ensure the regulatory body is able to do its job.” ■
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