Training broker Acquire Learning fined $4.5m in Federal Court

TRAINING broker Acquire Learning has been fined $4.5 million for unconscionable conduct that a Federal Court judge said resembled a “fly-by-night” operation.

TRAINING broker Acquire Learning has been fined $4.5 million for unconscionable conduct that a Federal Court judge said resembled a “fly-by-night” operation.

Judge Bernard Murphy on Tueasday declared that Acquire contravened Australian Consumer Law.

John Wall was managing director and Andrew Demetriou chairman of Acquire in February 2015. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

He said staff, “misleadingly called Career Advisers”, made unsolicited marketing calls to “aggressively” offer job seekers vocational education between July 2014 and March 2015.

Some of those targeted reported having learning disabilities, difficulty reading or mental illness.

“It used various unfair and misleading sales techniques to induce job seekers,” Justice Murphy said.

ANDREW DEMETRIOU’S COMPANY ACCUSED OF TRAINING COURSE PRESSURE

“Its activities resembled those of an unscrupulous fly by night operation rather than those of a prominent and market leading provider of student recruitment services, as it describes itself.”

Job seekers enrolled in courses incurred debts, under the Commonwealth’s VET FEE-HELP scheme, of between $9,900 and $21,000 — repayable once they hit minimum income levels.

Acquire Learning is in administration.

It was fined $4.5 million and will pay $100,000 towards the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s legal costs.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the government and regulators were shutting “unscrupulous training providers” out of the sector.

“Dodgy providers are on notice,” he said.

“The new safeguards we’ve put in place through our VET Student Loans program mean students can have confidence that the training they are receiving is aligned to workplace needs and strong employment outcomes, and is being delivered by training providers who have met the tougher benchmarks we have set.”

@moniquehore