Qualify Me! Pty Ltd fined $20,000 after admitting training breach

The vocational training regulator has successfully prosecuted a company for an improper third party arrangement to offer recognition of prior learning.

Qualify Me! Pty Ltd was fined for an improper third party arrangement to offer recognition of prior learning.

The vocational education regulator has successfully prosecuted a company for advertising 187 training courses in 2022 without including the name and registration code of the registered training organisation that would issue the qualification.

The company, Qualify Me! Pty Ltd, which is now trading at ASQANET Pty Ltd, was fined $20,000.

Australian Skills and Quality Agency CEO Saxon Rice said third-party organisations such as Qualify Me! “must accurately and honestly represent those courses in all marketing and enrolment activities”.

“We are doubly concerned where this type of behaviour ­applies to recognition of prior learning, as students who do not acquire the necessary competency or knowledge and gain qualifications via this method pose an increased risk to themselves and others in the workplace,” she said.

ASQA said it was continuing to investigate Qualify Me!, which was convicted and fined $10,000 in 2020 for a similar offence.

“We urge anyone with concerns or information regarding training and assessment outcomes achieved where Qualify Me! Pty Ltd or Asqanet Pty Ltd were a party to the arrangement to contact our tip-off line via phone [phone]),” Ms Rice said

ASQA also said that recent changes to the law meant that penalties for such offences had increased five-fold.