Face to Face Training Services hit by allegations of ‘tick and flick’ qualifications

THE qualifications of thousands of students could be the subject of review after The Wolf of Wall Street’s bad boy ways contributed to the collapse of a Brisbane training services company.

Jordan Belfort, famously known after the movie The Wolf of Wall Street.

THE qualifications of thousands of students could be the subject of review after The Wolf of Wall Street’s bad boy ways contributed to the collapse of a Brisbane training services company.

Face to Face Training Services and its related entities went belly up this month after up to $10 million in taxpayer funding was withdrawn following allegations concerning the teaching methods of infamous fraudster Jordan Belfort.

Staff at the Brisbane companies were also allegedly told to “tick and flick” qualifications, signing off on skills without having completed any practical training or assessment. The industry watchdog last month cancelled the registration of FTF, Environment Training Australia and New System Homes and continues to investigate whether student qualifications should be reviewed after industry leaders voiced concerns ill-prepared workers could hurt someone without adequate retraining.

“The Australian Skills Quality Authority deemed the three providers to be critically non-compliant,” a spokesman for the ASQA said.

“ASQA does has the ability to, in certain circumstances, cancel qualifications and statements of attainment.”

The spokesman said at this stage ASQA had not pursued a wholesale recall of qualifications but was keeping the option open should students come forward or were proven to be “deficient”.

Former staff member Donna Hedley said she believed all qualifications should be reviewed after she blew the whistle on the training company last year over concerns about “dodgy practices” taught by Mr Belfort, among others.

Ms Hedley said “they were pushing the business hard”.

“They didn’t have enough trainers to go around so they would send people out there and just tick off without checking.

“One business had to pay another trainer to retrain concreters because they couldn’t read certain instructions they’d been ticked off for. Imagine if they had built a wall and it collapsed on someone?”

Mr Belfort moved to Queensland last year after he was famously found guilty of defrauding clients out of US$200 million.

Although owner Paul Conquest said Mr Belfort was only hired to run workshops to motivate staff, Ms Hedley said he was regularly in the office and even demanded staff come in early to obtain instructions from him via Skype when he returned to the US.

Ms Hedley said staff were pitted against each other to sign up as many students as possible and were rewarded with big taxpayer-funded bonuses for their efforts.

“It was rammed down our throats that one guy got 97 builders approved in a week and he was going to make $60,000 for that one week of work because he had done such a great job.

“I started thinking about all the landscapers and construction people who build walls and concreting that hold up schools and hospitals and knew I had to speak up,” Ms Hedley said.

WRA Insolvency liquidator Anne-Marie Barley said investigations were ongoing and liquidators continued to assist directors with legal negotiations with the State Government.

Mr Belfort and Mr Conquest did not respond to requests for comment before publication.