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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-07-20 Daily Xml
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ADELAIDE PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:25): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I have previously told the house about action taken earlier this year against Adelaide Pacific International College by the Department of Further Education, Science and Technology under the Training and Skills Development Act 2008. DFEEST carried out a full monitoring audit of APIC and found the college to be critically noncompliant with the Australian Quality Training Framework standards. In addition, the audit found that the college was 'noncompliant' with 12 of the 14 standards under the commonwealth's ESOS national code.

In May, the delegate of the South Australian Training and Skills Commission (the Chief Executive of DFEEST, Mr Raymond Garrand) served notice on the college of his intention to cancel its registration under the Training and Skills Development act. The college responded to the notice on 4 June. After the delegate had considered that response, the original audit findings and the full registration history of APIC, he concluded that APIC had breached its conditions of registration as a training provider.

Under the Training and Skills Development Act, it is a condition of registration that a registered training organisation must comply with the Educational Services for Overseas Students National Code. The delegate has advised me that APIC has failed to comply with 12 of the 14 standards of the code. In particular, it failed:

1. To adequately monitor the enrolment of students across the scope of courses and ensure that they completed their courses within the specified duration (standard 9).

2. To adequately monitor the progress of students and provide appropriate intervention and support strategies (standard 10).

3. To systematically and accurately monitor student attendance (standard 11).

It was in response to these findings that the commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations imposed a suspension on APIC's registration as a provider to overseas students. This suspension limited APIC's ability to enrol prospective students and required APIC to continue to train on-course students only. APIC lodged an appeal against this action in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

It is also a condition of APIC's registration that it comply with the AQTF 2007 Essential Standards for Registration. APIC failed to comply with each of the standards. In particular, it failed:

1. To provide training and assessment across the scope of its courses (standard 1).

2. To provide quality outcomes for its clients (standards 2).

3. To have systematic management and record systems which are responsive to the needs of clients, staff and stakeholders (standard 3).

Under the Training and Skills Development Act, it is an offence for a registered training provider to contravene a condition imposed through its registration as a provider. It was on this basis that the delegate of the Training and Skills Commission took action to cancel APIC's registration as a registered training organisation, effective from Monday 28 June. APIC lodged an appeal against this action in the District Court of South Australia, and the action to cancel the registration was stayed until 19 July. During this period, the suspension imposed by DEEWR remained in place.

I commend Therese O'Leahry and the Office of the Training Advocate for acting swiftly to ease concern of students by coordinating several information sessions. Representatives of the department, DEEWR and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship were present at all sessions, providing information and responding to student issues and concerns.

On 12 July, APIC informed DEEWR that it would not be pursuing its appeal against the DEEWR action to suspend APIC's registration as a provider to international students or the action of the delegate of the Training and Skills Commission to cancel its registration as a registered training organisation. APIC further indicated that it intended to cease trading as at 12 July 2010.

At a hearing in the District Court on 12 July, the court ordered that the stay imposed on 28 June be terminated forthwith. Consequently, the cancellation of APIC's registration as a training provider under section 37 of the Training and Skills Development Act came into effect. Accordingly, I can inform the house that APIC has been removed from the National Training Information Service, under section 91 of the ESOS act. This action automatically cancels APIC's registration as a provider to international students.

The commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has activated the consumer protection requirements of the ESOS Act. A meeting of students was held on Thursday 15 July and was attended by representatives of DEEWR, DFEEST, DIAC, the Office of the Training Advocate and Australian Council for Private Education and Training.

The tuition assurance is now in place, and the Australian Council for Private Education and Training is in the process of placing students in the equivalent courses with providers who are members of the ACPET scheme. Should students not be placed through this process, they will be referred to the ESOS Assurance Fund with the option to transfer to TAFE.

Throughout this matter I have made it clear that the welfare of the students remains our priority. The department and the Office of the Training Advocate will continue to monitor this process to ensure that students are not disadvantaged. Madam Speaker, be assured that every effort will be taken so that those students who want to be placed with an alternative provider, such as TAFE, will be.

I would like to thank the Consul-General of India, Mr Amit Dasgupta, and also acknowledge the Premier's Special Consul on India, Mr Brian Hayes QC, and the President of the Indian Community in South Australia, Major-General Vikram Madan, for their concern and support for the welfare of students. This action and any future action by the government to deal with noncompliant training organisations reflects the desire to ensure that South Australia's position as a high-quality provider of education continues.

I expect that improvements can be made to our work in this area. I look forward to hearing from Mr Warren McCann in the near future about further improvements to the current regulatory framework and, in particular, the current legislative framework and further steps that can be taken to avoid situations of critical noncompliance.

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