TAFE SA course quality crisis: Hundreds of students cleared, but many more to go

TAFE SA is working through the arduous process of “remediating” students affected by its course quality crisis. But not all students are satisfied with the way it’s been handled.

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TAFE SA boss Alex Reid is parked by a bowls club in the Barossa.

She’s between stops on a country tour visiting industry partners involved in the training of students caught up in the crisis that has engulfed the public provider for months.

It’s part of a painstaking process to ensure affected students are not disadvantaged, stave off the national regulator’s threats to suspend new enrolments in 10 courses found to be substandard, and restore the institution’s battered reputation.

“I can’t think of a single other thing we could have thrown at this,” she says of the resources marshalled to right the TAFE ship.

Ms Reid, the interim chief executive, says none of the more than 1300 students have or will have to redo study units or take formal exams again.

In many cases – especially the biggest cohort of about 800 in aged care – they are or were attached to employers as trainees or apprentices, and the remediation required is simply confirmation with those employers of the students’ competence in required skills. For others, it’s “short quizzes” that students can do by email.

The first priority has been the group of 140 students who had completed their courses and were “awaiting a parchment” to prove they are qualified for the job they’ve got, or the one they want.

“We’ve done 139,” Ms Reid said. “We were very keen to have those done as soon as possible, for obvious reasons.”

But the 139 “done” include a small number of students who TAFE SA has tried to contact multiple times without success.

“If one of those students comes back to us in six months or 12 months and applies for their parchment, we’ll remediate them then,” she said.

The second group of about 300 students are those who had already received their qualifications, only to find their courses were among those damned by the Australian Skills Quality Authority’s audit. Ms Reid said ASQA’s submission to a Senate inquiry made clear there was “no threat to their parchment”, and 50-60 had already gone through any remedial administration or assessment required, with the rest to be done “as soon as possible”.

She is confident any students issued qualifications have the appropriate skills, as the “noncompliances” identified with the courses were “not about teaching and learning, but assessment”. For the same reason, she is hopeful the regulator will not suspend new enrolments in any courses after TAFE SA delivers its formal response early next month.

By far the largest group of students, almost 900, are “continuers” part-way through courses. About 200 of them are already “remediated”.

“Any remediation that occurs happens as they continue their studies, with no apparent effect on them,” Ms Reid said, emphasising that they could still complete their studies with TAFE SA even if, “god forbid”, enrolments should be suspended in their course.

Ms Reid says the publicity around the crisis had not dented enrolment numbers for this year, either in the audited courses or overall.

Bridgewater Mill apprentice chef Leuwin Andrew is part way through his certificate III in commercial cookery. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

But not all affected students are impressed with the way the crisis has been handled.

Bridgewater Mill apprentice chef Leuwin Andrew, 19, is part way through his certificate III in commercial cookery, said TAFE SA had not yet called him or tried his primary email.

“I honestly don’t know whether I’ll be going back to TAFE,” says Mr Andrew, who was the school-based apprentice of the year in the Australian Training Awards in 2016.

“ A lot of my friends haven’t received any updates on the matter.”