By Cam Lucadou-Wells
The state’s Department of Education and Training has launched a weekly audit of a much-lamented mental health course at Chisholm Institute.
Meanwhile, law firm Gordon Legal is investigating a potential class action on behalf of the online course’s frustrated and distressed students.
As reported last week by Star News, the South-East based TAFE’s Certificate IV in Mental Health online course was suspended for several months after an internal review.
This was in response to a litany of student complaints, such as poor training materials, faulty links and videos and a lack of available trainers.
The course has been offered as a Free TAFE program to tackle a shortage of mental heath workers across the state.
A DET spokesperson said the Department would attend Chisholm weekly to monitor the delivery of the course “ensuring it meets industry standards”.
“We’re incredibly disappointed this course has clearly fallen below the high standards of our Free TAFE programs.
“We’ll work to make sure no other Chisholm student has this experience and consider an audit of other online mental health courses to ensure they are all providing the quality training Victorian students deserve.”
The department stated it would meet with student representatives to “get the job-ready training they need to make a difference in our mental health system”.
A Chisholm spokesperson stated it welcomed the Department’s “additional support … to ensure students have the best learning experience”.
In March, 200 students’ educations were put on hold while Chisholm upgraded the Certificate IV in Mental Health, Diploma in Mental Health and Diploma in Alcohol and Other Drugs.
Chisholm had stated that its review “identified that a number of assessment items were required to be updated and aligned to the requirements of industry”.
The “vast majority” of students remain enrolled online and are continuing their studies without further delays, Chisholm stated.
On resumption on 11 July, student Rachel Scanlon said the course materials didn’t seem to have been updated.
She reported that there were still faulty video and web links, and a lack of teachers. And she’s faced with a glut of six assessments to do in her first week back.
Ms Scanlon had hoped to finish her Certificate IV and look for paid work last month. But the end date was now possibly December.
After the stress and anxiety, student Leigh Lambert was switching to another training provider.
Learning was “impossible” due to a lack of teaching support and assessments and poor materials that “didn’t make sense”. His first chaotic modules in 2022 were a “waste of time”.
Chisholm met his complaints with vague answers, he says.
“I questioned my own sanity and what my future held.
“It was not properly preparing people for being trained and ready for the industry.”
Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech said the potential class action was just in the early, investigative stage but “on the surface, it looks pretty bad”.
It seemed to share a “troubling pattern” with the firm’s class action for 1000-plus aviation students against Box Hill TAFE.
In both matters, the institutes seemed to “not have proper governance of courses and not properly monitoring them”, Mr Grech said.
