Statement of regulatory action
31 January 2025
To protect the public and the integrity of the Vocational Education (VET) sector, ASQA took action late last year to cancel the registration of four unrelated and critically non-compliant Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and the qualifications they fraudulently issued during relevant periods.
Following extensive compliance investigations, ASQA found the former providers had systematically issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors; and/or did not ensure students had successfully satisfied all requirements prior to issuing VET certification. These providers were typically purporting to deliver on the basis of a model of ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) that was grossly inadequate.
ASQA took swift action to notify more than 18,750 former students that their qualifications and/or statements of attainment were at risk of being cancelled. Urgent action was required by ASQA for qualifications and/or statements of attainment issued in care and construction-related industry areas because of the potential safety risks to the former students, others in the workplace, and some of the most vulnerable members of the community.
All former students of the four de-registered VET providers were given the opportunity to demonstrate to ASQA that the relevant provider had delivered for them, the training and/or assessment necessary to achieve or confirm the learning outcomes or competencies required prior to being issued with certification.
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.
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 of the following:
- Luvium Pty Ltd (trading as Australia Education & Career College): qualifications and/or statements of attainment of 7,360 students across individual support, early childhood education and care, community services and first aid cancelled.
- IIET (trading as EDUVET): qualifications and/or statements of attainment of 6,818 students across individual support, disability, aged care and community services and first aid cancelled.
- Gills College (trading as Elite College Australia and/or Sterling Business College): qualifications and/or statements of attainment of 3,364 students across individual support, early childhood education and care, community services, first aid and automotive cancelled.
- DSA Ventures (trading as Australian Academy of Elite Education): qualifications and/or statements of attainment of 1,220 students across building and construction related areas cancelled.
ASQA continues to work with government agencies, state and territory governments, and other regulators to determine impact of qualification cancellations on former students and any workplaces affected.
In 2023, the Australian Government announced an investment of $37.8 million to support VET quality and integrity, including allocating $33.3 million to ASQA for a suite of measures including the establishment of a new Integrity Unit and tip-off line. Since the tip-off line’s launch on 4 October 2024, it has received more than 3200 tip-offs, with more than half providing actionable intelligence.
This investment has strengthened ASQA’s ongoing capacity to take action against illegal behaviour and non-genuine providers that threaten the integrity of VET.
“There is no place for any VET provider who seeks to undermine the sector or exploit students. Australians should have confidence in their vocational education sector and the integrity of qualifications issued,” ASQA CEO Saxon Rice said.
“ASQA has a dual mandate to both protect and enhance the quality of VET. This has never been more important as we focus our strengthened compliance and enforcement activities on non-genuine providers and bad-faith operators that engage in fraudulent, illicit or unethical activities.
“These decisions are part of an ongoing program of regulatory action and we will continue to take action to remove providers who are found to be fraudulently issuing qualifications.”
Updates at: www.asqa.gov.au Media contact: media@asqa.gov.au