Despite federal and state efforts to crack down on unethical private training colleges, vulnerable students are still being 'harassed' into debt and dodgy courses, a Senate inquiry has been told.
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The inquiry heard of a Vietnamese-speaking salesperson who in April approached Vietnamese students studying English at the Yarraville Community Centre, signing up seven students to a diploma in business.
The students were told the course was free, and promised an electronic tablet and smartphone, according to Yarraville Community Centre manager Chris McCall.
They were also asked to bring their passports, visas and tax file numbers to a Footscray pharmacy for verification as part of the enrolment process.
The Senate inquiry into private vocational education and training (VET), which held a public hearing in Melbourne on Wednesday, heard that the salesperson arranged for a taxi to take a student to the pharmacy,
Ms McCall said the students were incredibly upset when they later found out that they had accrued a huge debt, and unenrolled.
"We have many more students who are being contacted by phone, text, doorknocking and sometimes they are being harassed multiple times to enrol," she said.
The Consumer Action Law Centre, which has been trying to help the Vietnamese clients waive their debts, said they were still receiving complaints about providers, despite a federal government crackdown on unethical practices in the sector.
The head of the Guild Pharmacy Academy, Sue Bond, presented the Senate committee with a pile of medications to illustrate the dangers of underqualified pharmacy assistants.
Ms Bond raised concerns about a pharmacy assistant who received her qualification in the mail and did not know what an analgesic was.
Australian Education Union Federal TAFE secretary Pat Forward said private training colleges were "reaping super profits" as students racked up huge debts for substandard courses.
She called for government funding tendered to the private sector to be capped at 30 per cent to protect TAFES.
Ms Forward said students had accrued VET FEE-HELP debts totalling $1.7 billion from January to the end of May 2015, up from $1.6 billion during 2014.
The Abbott government has introduced a raft of changes to stamp out unethical practices in the industry, including banning the use of incentives such as electronic gadgets and upfront payments.
The state government is conducting a separate review of VET funding, and recently terminated contracts with three unscrupulous training providers as part of a $9 million blitz.
Almost 10,000 students have had their vocational certificates recalled by the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority in the past year due to concerns about the quality of the courses.
