BY JARROD MELMETH
Following the recent collapse of Careers Australia, after the company was placed into voluntary administration last month, the TAFE Community Alliance is calling on the Federal Government to redirect public funds to restore the Hunter TAFE system as a trusted vocational education training provider.
Careers Australia first made waves in the Hunter when its Steel River, Newcastle campus suddenly closed its doors in July 2016, leaving 300 students in need of a new VET provider.
Last month the company was placed into voluntary administration six weeks after it was stripped of federal funding due to poor completion rates and aggressive recruitment regime.
Spokesperson for the TAFE Community Alliance Linda Simon said public education needs to remain a priority.
"What we have seen for a number of years now is that governments have decided to make funding competitive in the VET area and consequently we have had a lot of private companies that have set up delivering VET who is about profit rather than delivering a quality education for students.
"Consequently, a lot of those companies have acted unethically. They have gone out aggressively marketing the students, who may or may not want to undertake these courses or understand what it is all about, and some have ended up in a lot of debt.
"A number of these companies have been caught out and they have collapsed leaving students stranded," Ms Simon said.
The renewed calls for redirecting funds back into TAFE coincide with concerns over a federal government decision to outsource the Australian Migrant English Program contract to American-owned private provider Max Solutions.
Hunter TAFE currently serves 200 students studying the AMEP course, with many of those students being migrants and refugees who have fled war-torn countries.
Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon said a private provider will not be able to provide the services a public TAFE can.
"Things such as quality teachers who are trained linguists, but also trained in trauma informed teaching practices, because we should not forget that a number of these people have come from war-torn countries, have undergone all sorts of devastating trauma in their lives, which is almost unimaginable for most Australians and need that informed practice of teaching.
"Teachers who can identify, manage and support people who have been through extreme levels of trauma," Ms Claydon said.
Ms Claydon also said during a Senate estimates hearing last week, Max Solutions had been found "non-compliant" following an audit.
"I have raised directly with Max Solutions some of the concerns people have raised.
"We want adequate responses to the questions being asked.
"Max Solutions is a large American-owned company with outlets all around the world.
"It is a profit making business with very clear contrasts to Hunter TAFE and there are questions for me also around whether a profit making business will have to prioritise profits for its shareholders above and beyond the delivery of excellent and quality courses for its students.
"I have concerns around whether the provider will be able to continue the small outreach programs into rural parts of the rural parts of the Hunter Valley that were undertaken by Hunter TAFE.
"I am concerned that not all of the capacity that TAFE had into that region will be met and those much smaller class sizes will be found to not be profitable enough by the provider to continue.
"Where does that leave those students?
"There are a lot of unanswered questions because the government has handled the transition process appallingly.
"If there are any questions around the compliance issues, they must be addressed and it is definitely in the providers' interest to have that addressed on the public record," Ms Claydon said.
