Last week, The Hon. Andrew Giles, Minister for Skills and Training along with Saxon Rice, CEO of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) held a press conference to talk about Real Skills Deserves Real Recognition, the next step in the Albanese Government’s crackdown on dodgy and shonky operators in the vocational education and training sector.
The Koala congratulates regulators as they separate the wheat from the chaff, an analogy of getting rid of non-conforming or poorly performing providers. There should be more targeted action against providers who are not pulling their weight.
One comment in the presser got The Koala’s attention, it pointed to the scale of regulatory activity underway, noting:
“Now, one of the tools that we have at our disposal, our VET Tip-Off Line, is running hot. Since it was established in 2023, we have received more than 8,000 tip-offs, and more than half of these have delivered actionable intelligence. Now, this intelligence and other sources have really helped us to act quickly to remove 13 unscrupulous providers from the sector by cancelling their registration and cancelling more than 43,000 qualifications or statements of attainment that they have issued. We are acting to protect vulnerable Australians because some of these fraudulent qualifications were issued in early childhood, aged care, disability, and the building and construction industries.”
Strong words. Significant figures. Updated from the 10 providers and 25,500 qualifications or statements of attainment in September of 2025. And, naturally, a few points worth clarifying.
So, the Koala wrote to ASQA seeking further detail, particularly around how these figures intersect with international education, a sector that has found itself increasingly drawn into the government’s rhetorical orbit of VET and broader education enforcement.
The response, when it came, was notably precise and as always, the Koala thanks ASQA for its collegiality and professionalism. An ASQA spokesperson said:
The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has cancelled the registration of 13 critically non-compliant providers as of 31 March, where those providers were found to have issued qualifications and/or statements of attainment without adequate assessment prior to issuing VET certification.
One of these providers was CRICOS registered, however the action to cancel qualifications of this provider did not relate to their overseas student cohort.
Information is published and updated regularly on ASQA’s website (https://www.asqa.gov.au/for-students/qualification-integrity-regulatory-action) and provides a summary of the reasons why ASQA cancelled the provider’s registration and details of relevant qualifications.”
And there it is again, the detail that quietly reshapes the narrative.
Yes, 13 providers were removed. Yes, tens of thousands of qualifications have been cancelled. And yes, the conduct described is serious, particularly given the sectors involved.
But also, only one provider held CRICOS registration or in laymans terms can deliver to international students, and even then, the compliance action did not relate to international students.
This is not a trivial distinction.
As the Koala has previously observed in its coverage of Tribunal backs ASQA decision to deregister non-compliant training provider (TKN 25/9/25) and Fact check: Government’s language problem in international education and why it’s eroding trust (TKN 20/8/25), the challenge is not the enforcement itself, it is the way enforcement is framed.
Because when large numbers are presented without context, they have a tendency to travel. And when they travel, they often arrive in places they were never meant to implicate.
The data, now clarified, points to targeted regulatory action within the domestic VET space, not a systemic issue tied to international education providers. Something that facts need to trump perception on (TKN 8/4/26).
Which inevitably brings us to policy.
Under changes to the ESOS Act, new providers must now deliver education to domestic students for two years before becoming eligible to enrol international students.
A safeguard, on paper.
Though, as the Koala quietly notes, if the system can already identify “unscrupulous providers,” act on “actionable intelligence,” and remove non-compliant operators, none of which, in this instance, meaningfully implicates the international student cohort, then requiring future providers to prove themselves in an entirely different market first does feel like an extra step.
Perhaps a contradictory one.
The transcript of last week’s press conference is available here.
