Scandal-plagued education provider Acquire Learning goes into administration

The shakeout of Australia's privatised vocational education market has claimed one of its biggest players.

Acquire Learning, a company which once boasted former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou as chair of its advisory council, went into voluntary administration on Friday on the verge of insolvency.

Acquire Learning Group Managing Director John Wall and the company's former advisory council chair Andrew Demetriou in November 2014. Credit: Pat Scala

Back in 2014 the company was rumoured to be considering a $700 million sharemarket float, but this week was "either insolvent or about to become insolvent," according to newly appointed administrator Barry Wight, of Cor Cordis.

"We will now commence a full investigation of the financial position of the group," he said.

Acquire's subsidiary, CareerOne is trading on - but has stopped sponsoring Carlton.Credit: Josh Robenstone

Acquire Learning was a super-salesman of vocational education courses funded via the Federal Government's VET FEE-HELP scheme even though, in its early days, it did not own a training college itself.

Instead it bought the names of job seekers from job search websites, particularly the then-News Corporation-owned CareerOne. Acquire would then cold-call the job-seeker and sell them expensive courses with the lure of a job at the end.

In late 2015, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission began prosecuting Acquire Learning for false, misleading and unconscionable conduct between July 2014 and March 2015.

The ACCC cited evidence that Acquire had taken advantage of vulnerable consumers and used "unfair tactics" and placed "undue pressure" to convince consumers to enrol.

Andrew Demetriou.Credit: Josh Robenstone

Most students were left without a job, and with big debts to the government of up to $52,000.

A crackdown late last year by the federal government on the marketing of vocational education, and new laws starting on January 1 to limit the cost of courses to between $5000 and $15,000 severely damaged Acquire's business model.

However, CareerOne, which since June last year has been 90 per cent controlled by Acquire Learning and was also chaired by Mr Demetriou until December last year, trades on, even though it announced earlier this week it was withdrawing from a four-year sponsorship deal with the Carlton Football Club.

Mr Wight said: "We're led to believe that the [Acquire] directors have an appetite to restructure the group, and that would include CareerOne, which was a 'key asset' of the group."

Mr Wight said he had been in discussions with the company's directors in the lead up to their decision to seek voluntary administration, but he could not yet identify the cause of the problems.

"We're still investigating, but it appears the regulatory changes had a significant impact," Mr Wight said.

Consumer Action Law Centre chief executive Gerard Brody said he had received dozens of complaints about Acquire's high-pressure tactics and breaches of privacy as names of job seekers were passed on.

Acquire had been "set up to take advantage of the VET FEE-HELP scheme and didn't appear to be about getting good outcome for students", Mr Brody said.

"It was about sales and commissions".

Later, Acquire bought two training colleges, Franklyn Scholar and Asia Pacific Training Institute.

In October last year, Acquire sacked up to 100 staff in Melbourne and downsized other operations as a result of the Federal government crackdown.

In April, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, which regulates the training industry, deregistered Asia Pacific Training Institute, and restricted courses at Franklyn Scholar, after audits were commissioned following complaints.

The ACCC action was heard last year, and a Federal Court judgment in the case is pending.