Soar Aviation pilot training resumes after review

After six days of cancellations, flight training restarts at Soar Aviation for Box Hill Institute students.

A previous message to students from Soar Aviation CEO Neel Khokhani said there would be no charges levied for the cancelled flights.

After six days of cancellations, flight training has resumed at Soar Aviation for students of Box Hill Institute.

A message sent just after 11pm on Thursday night informed students of the resumption of flight training after receiving documents from Soar Aviation.

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Training was abruptly cancelled late Friday, following an audit of aviation courses delivered by Box Hill Institute in partnership with Soar, by the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

Students were then told Soar was hopeful of training resuming on Tuesday, but that was subsequently cancelled until Friday.

Last night’s message from BHI said training was suspended while a “review of Soar Aviation’s documentation could be undertaken following up on an issue raised by ASQA”.

Training to recommence

“An independent audit has confirmed the correct documentation and flight training will now recommence,” the message said.

“While we understand that the temporary suspension of training has been disruptive to many students, this action was necessary to ensure continuation of the high standards which BHI expects of all its partners.”

A previous message to students from Soar Aviation CEO Neel Khokhani said there would be no charges levied for the cancelled flights.

Neither Box Hill Institute nor Soar Aviation have answered questions from The Australian about the training suspension, which followed revelations of numerous complaints by students about their courses and investigations by ASQA and the Victorian Department of Education.

Among their concerns was misinformation about their course and the aircraft they would be flying, and being made to repeat training procedures which saw their loans exhausted before they had obtained even a recreational pilot’s licence.

The Australian has also obtained a 2019 report on the financial performance of BHI aviation courses, which raised concerns about the financial arrangement with Soar.

Mismatches

“Analysis of data at a student level indicates that there have been mismatches between income received for some students and amounts paid to Soar for those same students,” said the report.

“In many instances, this included paying Soar for students that were not enrolled in the associated course cluster. In some cases BHI made payments to Soar in respect to students that had withdrawn from the course, or were invoiced (and paid) multiple times for the same students.

“No material refund or credit has been received from Soar in respect to these mismatches.”

The report went on to say those factors had constrained BHI from achieving the notional gross profit levels contemplated in the contract with Soar (87 per cent and 92 per cent) with actual gross profit of 2 per cent and -2 per cent noted in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Statistics published by the Department of Employment for the first six months of 2019, showed 289 people enrolled in the Commercial Pilot’s Licence diploma at Box Hill Institute, for whom $7.1m in VET student loans had been paid.

The data also revealed a 47.6 per cent unit of study completion rate.