A Legislative Assembly committee has called for an audit report on electrotechnology at Canberra Institute of Technology to be made public as soon as it is received by the government.
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CIT's training for apprentice electricians has come in for sustained criticism over recent months, amid ongoing concerns about the quality of teaching and warnings graduating apprentice electricians were not equipped with important basic skills.
Last month, the National Electrical and Communications Association called on the ACT government to help establish a new training provider for electricians in the territory as part of this year's budget.
The calls followed separate warnings from former CIT trainer and assessor Ian Dunstan to the Assembly's standing committee on education and training that inadequate teaching and evaluation of electrical apprentices presented a risk to safety in the community.
Mr Dunstan said in April 2015 that urgent consideration should be given to the skills of students who were working as licensed tradespeople after transferring between different electrotechnology courses in the ACT. Graduates working in the industry without all the required training could cause fires and other safety risks to clients, he said.
The ACT Electrotechnology Energy Advisory Board has questioned if the electrotechnology course is meeting national standards for the industry, while the committee has heard concerns about management and compliance and frequent changing of the curriculum without explanation.
An interim report by the Assembly's inquiry into vocational education and youth training in the ACT said the audit report on the electrotechnology department completed by the Australian Skills Quality Authority in November should be made available as soon as it is received.
The committee said it remained concerned that the report of the audit and a response from CIT had not been public as it presented its findings, therefore requiring interim reporting on the matters.
"The committee intends pursuing this matter in future as part of this inquiry," the report said.
Among its recommendations, the committee has called on CIT to identify procedures put in place to ensure all electrotechnology apprentices who completed the CIT Capstone process "have become appropriately qualified after being transferred from the Electrotech Skills Centre".
The information should be presented to the committee by May 31.
Among a series of other recommendations, the committee said future annual and financial reports provided by CIT to the government should include updates on activities and initiatives on work to better promote respect, equity and diversity in the workplace. It followed complaints to WorkSafe ACT about bullying among staff at CIT and internal handling of complaints.
CIT was found to have failed to appropriately examine allegations of bullying and to have had deficient procedures and policies in place.
The committee said CIT management "has integrated significant changes to the way it manages workplace issues, with a greater focus on early intervention and providing guidance to staff when managing issues that arise in the workplace".
Newly appointed Higher Education, Training and Research Minister Meegan Fitzharris named Leanne Cover as CIT's new chief executive on January 29.
A second electrotechnology trainer, Global Energy Training Solutions, opened in Canberra last year.
