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Thousands of aged care and disability carers will be stripped of their qualifications after a rogue training provider provided them with bogus credentials.
The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) announced on Thursday it intends to cancel 6992 qualifications from Kingsway Vocational Training – which also traded as VETNET Education Services – because they were handed to people who had not received the appropriate training.
More than 4000 people who were awarded certificates to work in the disability sector or in aged care will have their qualifications cancelled.Credit: iStock
More than 4000 of the cancelled qualifications were for “individual support service” certificates, which are required for individuals to work with people with disabilities or in the aged care sector.
The 4000 former students who received Certificate III in Individual Support qualifications from Kingsway between 2023 and 2025 have been given until next week to respond to the authority’s decision to cancel their qualifications.
It is unclear how many of those people are currently working in caring roles.
But Older Persons Advocacy Network chief executive officer Craig Gear said the revelation was “very serious and worrying”.
“Aged care workers support some of the most vulnerable people in the community, and it is imperative that they are properly qualified and trained,” he said.
“Fraud is absolutely unacceptable and undermines the integrity of the aged care sector. It must be stamped out.”
The ASQA cancelled the registration of Kingsway, which was based in St Kilda, on July 9, after the regulator found the college did not meet the registration conditions and that it had issued statements of attainment or qualifications without adequate assessments.
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The director of Kingsway Vocational Training Ltd has been contacted for comment.
The authority also found the registered training organisation did not ensure that former students affected by the decision had completed the proper requirements before being granted their certificate.
The qualifications that the ASQA intends to cancel were obtained between January 27, 2023 and July 9, 2025 and also include certificates in building and construction, carpentry, business management, communications, bricklaying and block making and IT.
A letter sent by the ASQA to a former Kingsway student seen by The Age says the regulator found the training provider “to be critically non-compliant with its registration obligations”.
Since November 2024, more than 29,000 qualifications and statements of attainment awarded to more than 26,000 people have been cancelled under an ASQA crackdown on bad-faith registered training organisations.
A number of the qualifications were in industries that post a significant risk to public health and safety or to the most vulnerable members of the community, including early childhood education and care.
A number of the qualifications were in industries that post a significant risk to public health, such as early childhood education and care.Credit: Peter Braig
An ASQA spokesperson said it was “paramount” there be confidence in the integrity of the vocational education sector and qualifications issued by training providers.
The authority warned students to be wary of marketing from training organisations, brokers and agents that included phrases like “no classes to attend”, “no study or exams required”, or “fast tracked pathway to skilled migration”.
Other red flags included promises that no time off work would be needed to achieve qualifications or that they could be achieved within seven days, the ASQA said.
“ASQA has produced guidance for students on unethical and misleading practices of non-genuine providers, brokers and agents attempting to lure them into enrolling through the promise of fast-tracked qualifications, often purporting to use a model of recognition of prior learning without the need for any training or assessment,” the spokesperson said.
The authority said it had cancelled or refused to renew 138 registrations between 2024 and 2025 and that it had received 1500 tip-offs about the training sector since June 30.
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