Private training provider TMG college closes its doors, students and staff stranded

A private training college with campuses across Melbourne has closed its doors, leaving hundreds of students and staff in the lurch.

TMG’s closed city campus with notices saying that training had been suspended.

Private training provider TMG College, which has campuses in the city, Werribee and Box Hill, has called in the administrators and shut its doors.

A fall in enrolments because of the pandemic and a hold-up in processing student visa approvals have been blamed for its troubles.

Hundreds of students, many from overseas, as well as dozens of staff have been left in the lurch and all operations have been suspended.

TMG College founder and chief executive Malka Lawrence said it was a very sad day but hoped the business could be picked up as a going concern.

“I’ve put my heart and soul into it.

“We’re a quality RTO (Registered Training Organisation) known for looking after our students and staff.’’

Ms Lawrence said students would transfer to other training colleges and that some employees had already found other work.

TMG College has trained 30,000 local and international students since opening in 2005.

“We’re a large provider and it means we have a very large campus and it’s very expensive to keep open when the international students don’t come.’’

The college’s Queen St campus building was locked on Wednesday with a notice informing students that training had been suspended.

The Malka Group and TMG founder Malka Lawrence in 2010.

The college offered a range of courses including barbering, early childhood education and care, beauty services, barista, disability, conveyancing and aged care.

More than 40 of its courses attracted government funding of up to $18,000 for a 52-week certificate course.

Students paid tuition fees of up to $18,000 for a Cert IV in commercial cookery or as little as $2000 for a Cert III in early childhood.

International students paid up to $12,000 for full-fee courses.

As of 2019 the college had 444 students.

Notices at TMG College, Queen St in Melbourne, advising that training had been suspended.

Keith Crawford and Rob Smith, of McGrathNicol Restructuring, have been appointed administrators for TMG.

“The administrators have suspended TMG’s operations while we undertake an urgent

assessment of the available options for realising the value of TMG’s business assets including intellectual property, licences and accreditations,’’ they said.

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They said their appointment followed “a protracted period of subdued operational activity” caused by Covid and visa delays hindering international students entrance into

Australia.

The administrators notified staff that they were all redundant from Monday.

If the company is liquidated, employees may be eligible for some payout through the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee.

A creditor’s meeting has been scheduled for August 18.

The Australian Skills Quality audited The Malka Group – which trades as TMG College – was accused of having untrained staff, students who plagiarised and students who didn’t have enough English skills.

The 2019 report stated the organisation “has not demonstrated that they have adequate staff and education resources when delivering a course to overseas students”.

Other concerns centred on the lack of qualified teaching staff and trainers who mark students incorrectly, with wrong answers marked as right.

The ASQA also raised the concern that students don’t have appropriate English skills to do the courses and were plagiarising their answers.

The audit also questioned the learning resources, noting “providing students with a textbook to complete does not demonstrate compliance with this standard”.