Regulators warn employers and students

State and national regulators are warning employers and students to be on the lookout for bogus training providers.

Investigations have revealed cases of unregistered providers posing as independent training organisations. Examples include providers:

• charging employers to deliver bogus workplace training in high-risk areas
  (for example, working on elevated platforms, traffic control and operating heavy machinery)
• tricking students into paying upfront fees for fast-tracked fake qualifications.

There is no such thing as an independent training organisation. Only registered training organisations (RTOs) can deliver nationally recognised training.

Watch out for these red flags:

• no study, no exams or no classes
• 100% guaranteed qualification
• assessment processes that are too quick or easy.

Use the National Training Register(opens in a new window) to check that:

• a provider is a genuine RTO 
• qualifications or certificates are nationally recognised.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

The Australian Government’s Real Skills Deserve Real Recognition campaign has more resources to help employers and students spot bogus providers:

• Red flags student factsheet
• Quality training factsheet

In Victoria, the VRQA will continue to share information with other regulators and act to stop unregistered providers. This helps protect Victoria’s apprentices and other workers from harm.

Any apprentice or trainee with concerns about their training can contact us at vrqa.apprenticeships@education.vic.gov.au(opens in a new window).

Students and employers with concerns about an RTO can contact us at vrqa@education.vic.gov.au.

Any worker with workplace health and safety concerns can call WorkSafe’s advisory service on 1800 136 089.