TAFE SA warned by national regulator that 16 courses could lose accreditation within four weeks
UPDATED: TAFE SA has been warned that if it does not improve 16 of its current courses it will lose accreditation for them in four weeks — which would affect around 2000 students.
HAIRDRESSING, plumbing and automotive students are among potentially thousands whose qualifications are under a cloud after the national regulator warned TAFE SA it could lose accreditation for 16 courses.
The affected courses cover sectors including automotive, meat processing, commercial cookery, health, hairdressing, visual merchandising, building, plumbing and electro-technology.
Up to 2000 students may be affected however it is not yet known what the consequences for those in affected courses would be if accreditation is revoked.
The Australian Skills Quality Authority issued a notice of “intention to remove or suspend” 16 TAFE SA qualifications on Monday and has given TAFE SA a month to improve its courses.
The warning followed “routine regulatory scrutiny” in May which “identified some noncompliance” with national training guidelines.
Opposition education spokesman John Gardner warned that the problem could “potentially impact thousands of students who are preparing themselves for a career in these areas and apprentices who have already started work”.
Higher Education Minister Susan Close said students enrolled in the affected courses were here “chief priority”.
“I have asked TAFE to ensure they are notified about the report and kept informed as progress is made in resolving the issues raised by it,” Dr Close said.
“Auditing of courses is an essential element of ensuring a high quality training system and every training provider must be prepared to continuously improve its standards.
“What we need to do is make sure that TAFE SA is responding in the appropriate way.”
Responding to the developments, Master Builders Association of SA chief executive officer Ian Markos said the future of industry was “dependent on training being high standard and relevant to employers”.
“The Government must work closely with industry to rectify the non-compliance and ensure the focus is on real world training,” he said.’
A spokesman for the national regulator said TAFE SA had been “co-operating ... to work through and rectify the noncompliances”.
The spokesman said the authority would “consider any response provided by TAFE SA before making a final decision on whether to impose the sanction”.
“With very large providers with an extensive scope of registration — like TAFE SA — it is not unusual to identify areas requiring attention in order to achieve the required standards,” he said.
TAFE SA education executive director Brian Rungie said the organisation had “made significant progress” to address elements identified during the ASQA audit.
“The ASQA audit looked at activity and identified some issues that our own internal quality systems had already identified and rectified,” he said.
“TAFE SA is committed to responding quickly and will continue working closely with ASQA to address the issues raised.”
It comes after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority revealed earlier this month that accreditation for a TAFE SA aircraft maintenance training course based at Parafield Airport had been suspended after the skills of up to 80 students were found lacking.
The course came under scrutiny five months ago after CASA found worrying issues with the courses assessment procedure during a routine check.
A Civil Aviation Safety Authority spokesman yesterday said its investigation into that issue was complete, but would not be made public.
“TAFE SA have taken corrective actions and a number, but not all, of their approvals have been reinstated. They need to do further work to get back all approvals but are going in that direction,” he said.
“There is still some aviation engineer training and assessment they cannot deliver and they are working to make the necessary improvements to be able to reinstate these elements of their courses.”
