A government crackdown on dodgy private colleges serving international and local students has resulted in the cancellation of more than 25,500 qualifications in fields including childcare.
The Australian Skills and Quality Authority (ASQA) has now stripped more than 23,000 students from eight shonky colleges of their qualifications since the beginning of 2024, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
The latest batch of students affected were from Melbourne’s Arizona College, which had its registration cancelled on June 14 for issuing qualifications and/or statements of attainment without adequate assessment, among other compliance issues.
“Given the significant issues identified during the compliance investigation and the potential safety risks to impacted individuals, others in the workplace, and some of the most vulnerable members of the community, urgent action is required by ASQA to consider the legitimacy of the qualifications and/or statements of attainment,” ASQA said.
The affected qualifications from Arizona College, which also traded as Invention Academy and has a Mr Ehtesham Tahir listed as CEO, were in individual support, child youth and family intervention, ageing support, disability, mental health, youth work and community services.
Sydney-based Learning Options (also trading as Contract Me under CEO Lawrence Sarker), and SPES Education, which lists its CEO as Mamoon Ahmed Mohammed, had their registrations cancelled in mid-May along with Melbourne-based Nextgen Tech Institute (also known as Australian Learning Academy and Qualify Now, CEO Mohammad Morshedul Arefin).
Four other colleges – Luvium (trading as Australia Education & Career College – CEO Rita Fragomeli), International Institute of Education and Training (IIET, trading as EDU VET, CEO Shakil Ahmed Anik), Gills College (trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College – CEO Siddhart Kapur), and DSA Ventures (trading as Australian Academy of Elite Education, CEO Omar Elashwah), had their registrations cancelled last year.
SPES Education, Gills College and Luvium all issued inadequate qualifications in early childhood education and care.
ASQA said in January that it notified more than former 18,750 students from the four “critically non-compliant” colleges shut down in 2024 giving them the opportunity to demonstrate that they deserved their certifications, but not a single one was able to do so.
“ASQA only received responses from around 20 per cent of former students and carefully considered these responses received before deciding whether the evidence provided was adequate,” ASQA said.
“No individual was able to demonstrate the necessary training or assessment which resulted in ASQA cancelling more than 21,000 qualifications and/or statements of attainment in November and December 2024.”
Skills and Training Minister Andrew Giles, who was dumped as immigration minister after releasing hundreds of illegal immigrant criminals into the community after the NZYQ High Court decision, blamed previous Liberal and Labor governments for the proliferations of dodgy private colleges.
“The cancellation of more than 25,500 shonky qualifications is evidence that what we’re doing is working. I want to encourage anyone with any concerns about a provider to pick up the phone and call the ASQA tip-off line,” he said.
Former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Christine Nixon, who authored a Home Affairs Department review into the exploitation of Australia’s visa system, told ABC’s 7.30 earlier this year that some private colleges were bringing students into the country illegally.
“I found particular nationalities who exploit their own nationalities,” she said.
The shonky schools revelations come after university insiders and experts warned that international students with no interest in early education were using fast-tracked childcare courses as a pathway to permanent residency, putting child safety at risk.
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