Training standards in WA have been criticised by the auditor-general and big employers.
Training standards in WA have been criticised by the auditor-general and big employers.
The owner of Australia’s largest privately held scaffolding business is planning to put all of his staff through a retraining program because of his concern about poor standards in the industry.
Pilbara Access has about 400 staff and is the biggest player in its target market – mining and energy projects in the Pilbara.
Company founder and managing director Stephen Easterbrook believes the industry has failed.
“We want change throughout the industry,” he said.
“It needs to be completely overhauled.”
Mr Easterbrook has put his money where his mouth is, investing $750,000 in HiSkill, a purpose-built scaffold training facility in Belmont.
“We’re bringing everyone back through here.”
Pilbara Access offshore and construction manager Alan O’Neill said a lot of people saw scaffolding and rigging as a quick and easy way into the resources sector.
“We set this place up to show the industry how it should be done,” Mr O’Neill said.
Mr Easterbrook believes the scaffolding industry needs a governing body that can set appropriate standards.
He said people with no pre-qualifications or prior experience could get a high-risk ticket in 13 days, whereas in the UK workers need to complete a three-year apprenticeship to do the same work.
He also expressed concern about the ‘certification of competency’ that other trainers provide after a two-to-four hour session, often with minimal practical assessment.
The equivalent skills assessment at HiSkill takes two days, and 70 per cent of the workers who had gained their ticket elsewhere failed the course.
“It’s not the fault of the individuals, it’s the fault of the industry for not setting these standards,” Mr O’Neill said.
These comments follow a critical assessment of the Training Accreditation Council, which regulates most of WA’s 500 registered training organisations.
A report by auditor-general Colin Murphy found that students at more than a third of WA’s RTOs have been exposed to serious breaches, including being taught by unqualified trainers and passing courses despite submitting incomplete or incorrect written assessments.
Of the 323 RTOs checked last year, 35 per cent were found to have either significant or critical non-compliance with national standards, while an additional 22 per cent were assessed as being in minor non-compliance.
Examples of the worst type of non-compliance include: one RTO assessing students as competent in using a forklift despite written assessments on the subject showing incorrect or incomplete answers; an RTO marking electrical engineering students as competent despite them undertaking no practical assessments; an RTO assessing recreation students as competent even though their trainer and assessor did not have industry experience or competence and did not observe the students practise the skills they were being marked on.
Mandurah Safety & Training Services managing director Geoff Day commented to Business News online that he had "caught dodgy RTO's red handed using a secret shopper”.
Mr Day said he had met with WorkSafe to discuss the issues and provide evidence of fraudulent assessments but was yet to hear back whether any action had been taken.
He said he was also awaiting a response from the Training Accreditation Council, which it had presented the same evidence to.
He said he was concerned RTOs that did use the correct course content and practical equipment would have to close their operations because of unfair competition.
“The dodgy RTO's are cheaper and quicker due to open book written assessments and fraudulent practical assessing,” he said.
As a result of non-compliance cases detailed in the auditor-general's report, the council said it had applied sanctions to nine organisations, suspending two and cancelling two.
The report found that due to council intervention “most problems that led to non-compliance were fixed”.
The council has accepted all five recommendations made by the auditor-general in an effort to improve its functions, with a notable focus on making students and industry affected by non-compliant RTOs more quickly aware of breaches.
Mr Murphy said while the council was found to be following the national approach when deciding which RTOs to register and monitor, it was a concern to see more than half of its checks of RTOs found instances of non-compliance.
“Any non-compliance raises concerns that students may not get the training they need and that the industry expects,” Mr Murphy said in a statement.
“The council should improve its practices to find these problems early and to ensure they are fixed quickly to minimise the impact on students and industry.
“But I am encouraged by new measures approved by the council in April 2015 that will focus more on higher-risk RTOs and engagement with industry.”
“These measures should result in better compliance by training providers to the benefit of students and industry.”
He said the state government provided about $550 million in funding to WA’s vocational education training sector and changes could be made by the council, in particular to better target high-risk occupation training courses, such as construction, mining, and first aid, in its checks of RTOs.
