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VET & TAFE
Vocation by regulators last year did eventually precipitate the voluntary closure of two of the company’ s major training providers, BAWM and Aspin. But why did BAWM obtain a green light from the Victorian regulator in 2013? Was BAWM fine in 2013 and not in 2014?
Are consumers well informed? The Vocation story also shows that consumers are still not protected sufficiently from providers that deliver inadequate training. About 2500 graduates of Vocation’ s training providers were recently sent a letter informing them their qualifications were worthless.
Is government funding well-targeted and efficient? Vocation’ s sharemarket downfall was assured when it was required to refund the Victorian Government about $ 20 million it had previously claimed. One wonders whether some other training providers would also be refunding taxpayer money if they were audited the same way Vocation was in 2014.
Fresh scandals Whilst governments showed determination and resolve in pursuing Vocation in 2014, two of the largest private training providers in Australia – Careers Australia and Evocca College – were the subject of scrutiny by ABC television in early March this year.
First, Careers Australia was profiled on ABC’ s 7.30 for the sales tactics used by a firm it had engaged to find and sign up students. Careers Australia has 16 campuses across five states and 14,000 students, and the ABC noted online that“ it is expanding rapidly by engaging door-to-door salespeople to sign up new students to courses funded by the federal government. Last financial year, Careers Australia billed taxpayers for almost $ 110 million in VET FEE-HELP loans.”
The ABC interviewed a current Careers Australia student and former salesbroker who told 7.30 that“ rapid growth is being achieved using dubious sales tactics”. For example, Nola Smith, a single mother of three living on Hobart’ s suburban fringe in Herdsmans Cove, according to the ABC website,“ signed up for a $ 20,000 double diploma of counselling and community services after being [ approached at her home ] by a salesman late last year. She said she was told she could pick her own course and that she could undertake the course entirely from home. Ms Smith said she had to pass a language, literacy and numeracy test, but was surprised when the salesman took the test for her.”
In fairness to Careers Australia, the Australian Council of Private Education and Training( ACPET), noted in the ABC online report that the ABC’ s account was based on“ comments provided by one salesman who is in dispute with his employer( Direct Sales Group), a student who clearly believes she was taken advantage of, and an ex-employee who finished his time with Careers Australia in mid-2013.
ACPET says no students were enrolled by the third party and that Careers Australia processed all enrolments and identified the LLN( language, literacy and numeracy) issues long before the ABC report”.
Whilst ACPET is to be commended for its recent efforts to rein in dodgy providers, for instance by introducing a code of practice, the wave of recent media reports like this one on Careers Australia suggest that ACPET may need to contemplate more decisive actions if it wants to protect the VET brand for its diverse member base.
Later in the same week in early March, 7.30 ran a second report on VET, this time based on interviews with former employees of the training provider Evocca College. The story focused on the low completion rate of Evocca’ s students compared with the high rate of its government funding.
ABC online reported that:“ Figures obtained by the ABC show Evocca College has a graduation rate of about 10 per cent, despite claiming more than $ 290 million in government funding via the VET FEE-HELP student loan scheme. The figures show [ that ] out of 38,213 students who signed up to its diploma courses in the past four years, only 2058 were handed diplomas by October 2014. There were 16,567 students who officially cancelled and 3897 who timed out of the course.”
This was the second story on Evocca by the national broadcaster in early 2015 and the big feature was the extent of research conducted by the ABC, in interviewing so many former staff.“ More than 20 former Evocca employees spoke to the ABC about questionable practices at the college after concerns about the training provider were first aired in January,” the ABC stated.“ Since then, the graduation rates of the college have been the subject of debate.
“ Now more allegations have come to light, including that it enrolled students illequipped for diploma-level courses without enough support, that it enrolled students who did not pass the required literacy test, and that it backdated tutor qualification forms to pass federal government audits. Former staff claimed the college actively sought to hamper students who wanted to leave the college and cease adding to their government training debt.”
The ABC reported Evocca has challenged it and“ rejected suggestions it was taking advantage of the VET FEE-HELP student training loan scheme, which was opened up to diploma courses in recent years. In a statement, a company spokesman said [ Evocca ] had a team of people dedicated to reaching out to students who were not attending.”
REPUTATIONAL DAMAGE Regardless of whether the ABC or Evocca is right, the damage to the VET brand by these national media segments is profound. And the coverage is extensive.
In radio, the high-profile ABC presenter Jon Faine in Melbourne has conducted a range of interviews about rogue VET practices and their impact on students.
In newspapers, in addition to writers from The Australian, The Australian Financial Review’ s satirical writer Joe Aston and his colleagues have delivered searing analyses of the Vocation disaster, bringing the controversies in VET to the attention of its financially powerful readership.
What would the public rather consume, a satirical newspaper piece that exposes the scandals in the market-based VET sector or a bureaucratic report from the VET reform process on its consultations? A radio host like Faine or a bureaucrat from Canberra? On the other hand, there are some new links between the scandals and the VET reform activities. The day after the 7.30 report on Careers Australia, its chief executive, Patrick McKendry, resigned as deputy chair of the federal government’ s Vocational Education and Training Advisory Board, which was established to strengthen industry input into vocational training.
Senator Birmingham, who wants to remove from VET any unscrupulous marketing practices, must be wondering whom he should listen to and what he should read or watch. n
See the recent report on consultations for the VET reform process at vetreform. industry. gov. au / publication / summary-national-consultations
Dr John Mitchell is a VET researcher and analyst. See jma. com. au
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