Compliance storm over web courses
The head of a local online education provider has dismissed claims the non-accredited courses give students false hope, describing the business model as “career skills development” that never implied regulatory compliance.
Following complaints from sections of WA’s education sector, WestBusiness can reveal Perth company iCollege, which backdoor listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in May, has been under investigation by the Australian Skills Quality Authority.
ASQA found the company, which offers a range of online business courses, was not in violation of any law.
But it is understood ASQA privately expressed concern over some of iCollege’s online offerings, such as a Certificate in Workplace Health and Safety.
The authority said it could give potential students a false belief that it would be recognised as a qualified course through a registered training organisation.
iCollege managing director Victor Hawkins recognised the $1250 course would not qualify someone to, for example, work on an Australian mine site. But he said the result could be different in another country.
Speaking from the Subiaco office where the website launched this month, Mr Hawkins was unmoved by the speculation surrounding the courses and believed there was confusion about what the site was offering.
He said its offerings — including 26 business courses ranging in cost between $300 and $2000 per course — provided students around the world with “global level” career skills to secure a job.
He said being “a maverick” in the area and “first to market”, the company was bound to ruffle a few feathers.
However, Mr Hawkins, who could not provide numbers of how many students iCollege had enrolled, said the company was still working out its scope and indicated a course such as the Certificate in Workplace Health and Safety might not be offered in Australia.
“There are industries which we would obviously never deliver a course in, because it requires legislation, ” Mr Hawkins said.
“For example, we’re not going to deliver a course to be a fin- ance broker because there are regulations (and) it doesn’t fit our model.”
Under Australian training regulations, registered training organisations are registered by ASQA to deliver vocational education and training services.
These regulated courses are generally a prerequisite for employment in sectors such as workplace health and safety and hundreds of other skills-based jobs.
iCollege, and a growing number of internet-based vocational education companies, are offering non-accredited courses as an alternative.
In a case of buyer beware, an ASQA spokesman said students should research training providers to find the one that “best met their need”.
The issue has opened a can of worms over the legitimacy of the growing online education sector, which IBIS predicted in a recent report would grow by 10.4 per cent in Australia over the next year, to revenue of $6.5 billion.
Australian Institute of Management WA chief executive Gary Martin said international buyers of Australian online education often assumed that management qualifications were accredited.
Professor Martin said reputational damage could flow through to the Australian international education industry.
He said that in some cases the accrediting body was owned by the provider itself, “creating a further dilemma”.
iCollege is doing just that. Mr Hawkins said its recently appointed director of education Phil Rutherford — a well known vocational education expert — had been engaged to create its own international accreditation, which it may offer to other online providers.
