Early childhood centres reject placement requests from graduate diploma students
Short courses are being exploited as a pathway for “fast-tracked” visas and putting children at risk, educators have warned as early childhood centres reject placement requests from international students.
Short courses are being exploited as a pathway for “fast-tracked” visas and potentially putting children at risk, educators have warned as early childhood centres across NSW reject placement requests from international students.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal childcare centres across the state have knocked back dozens of applications from students completing one-year early childhood graduate diplomas at Southern Cross University (SCU) and Victoria University.
Multiple whistleblowers within the sector have told The Daily Telegraph that some international students on placement are being failed because they are unable to properly engage with children or staff.
They say that some students are unable to perform basic tasks such as writing observations, suspecting they are using AI to complete assessments.
International students are forking out more than $25,000 to undertake the graduate diplomas.
Migration agents have also been found promoting SCU’s graduate diploma in early childhood on Facebook, sharing screenshots of recent admissions into the course.
“Another successful admission to the Grad Dip in Early Childhood Program at SCU despite certain claims in media,” the newly registered migration agent wrote.
In July, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) confirmed it was investigating SCU in relation to its early childhood education program, which include allegations of students ignoring distressed children while on placement.
A childcare centre director in Sydney’s lower north shore said she had knocked back placements from any students undertaking fast-tracked courses.
“These students have come from backgrounds in computer science and other fields unrelated to early childhood, so how can a one year course equip them for such a huge responsibility?” she said.
“We’ll no longer take any students doing a graduate diploma … They are failing tasks and not listening to instructions from their mentors.
“Some of their observations are also being written using ChatGPT and I know this because I asked them to tell me about their reflections in their own words and they could not do this.”
Another childcare source, who has worked in the sector for almost 15 years, said the short courses were being used as a “pathway” for visas from students at SCU and Victoria University.
“Some (students) have zero experience or passion for educating children,” she said.
“I’ve had students tell me that they are just doing the course for a visa, it’s shocking and compromises the safety of children.”
Georgie Dent, chief executive of advocacy group The Parenthood, said it was “absolutely paramount” that the qualifications and training of early childhood educators was robust and high quality.
“It is not appropriate for children, providers or parents to have unsuitably qualified people working,” she said.
An SCU spokeswoman said: “There are 26 providers, including 12 universities, offering the Graduate Diploma of Education (Early Childhood).”
“Recent challenges in the early childhood education and care sector have created a more complex environment for student placements,” she said.
“The (diploma) is taught by highly qualified and experienced early childhood teachers and academics. Before students begin placements, they must complete mandatory child protection requirements and a structured sequence of preparation activities, including mandatory residential workshops, online modules, and multiple assessments.”
A TEQSA spokesperson said: “Any information shared about Southern Cross University and Victoria University will be considered as part of TEQSA’s compliance processes into whether they are meeting their obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021.”
A VU spokesman said: “We have a robust Work-Integrated Learning (placement) program when selecting centres for our students, with the vast majority placed in centres with ‘Excellent’ or ‘Exceeding’ quality ratings on the ACECQA rating scale.”
Originally published as Early childhood centres reject placement requests from graduate diploma students
