A vital skills training program for migrants in the North and North-West will no longer be delivered by TasTAFE, with the relevant contracts instead being awarded to a controversial private subcontractor.
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From July 1, the for-profit MAX Solutions will commence providing the Australian Migrant English Program in North and North-West Tasmania, having been subcontracted by global education provider Navitas.
Navitas was awarded tenders to provide the service.
A Navitas spokesperson said it and MAX Solutions would work with TasTAFE to “ensure a smooth transition of services”.
During a budget estimates hearing in Canberra on Wednesday, Australian Skills Quality Authority chief executive Mark Patterson confirmed the body had recently audited MAX Solutions, finding it non-compliant.
But, in a statement made to Fairfax Media, MAX Solutions said otherwise.
“MAX Solutions has been found to be compliant by [the] ASQA,” the statement read.
Over the years, controversy has dogged the provider.
In 2009, a government investigation detailed an incident which saw MAX Employment, a subsidiary of MAX Solutions, enrol 141 people in a training course, even though its training room only had the capacity to accommodate 15 people.
It was for reasons such as this that MAX Solutions was accused of rorting the employment service system.
In 2015, a former client of MAX Employment publicised claims the provider had distributed her resumes with significant typographical errors.
Furthermore, the former client said she had not received a single job interview in the two-and-a-half years she had utilised MAX Employment’s services.
Nonetheless, Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam asserted that the tender process for the provision of the AMEP in the North and North-West was overseen by “policy specialists” from within the federal Education Department.
He also noted that the Skilling Australians Fund, which was detailed in the 2017-18 federal budget, would support job creation in places like North and North-West Tasmania.
Federal Opposition TAFE and vocational education spokeswoman Kate Ellis, meanwhile, said TasTAFE having the contract taken away from it raised “some important questions that need[ed] to be answered”.
“This is another kick in the guts for TAFE from a government that has a habit of putting big business before the interests of Tasmania,” Ms Ellis said.
A TasTAFE spokesperson said the organisation could not comment on Australian government tender processes.
