Dodgy short courses are no more, says ARC

The Australian Refrigeration Council (ARC) says it has put the kibosh on dodgy RTOs that issue spurious qualifications.

According to the ARC, tell-tale signs of inadequacy for these so-called qualifications are course length – typically two days when a minimum of 360 hours has been deemed necessary – and inappropriate reliance on recognition of prior learning (RPL) processes.

ARC CEO Glenn Evans says the last of the known two-day refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) courses that were once a scourge on the industry were shut down more than two years ago.

“Over the years, the ARC has worked in partnership with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) to shut down these courses,” he says.

“Significantly, this means you can no longer get a Certificate II RAC qualification by attending a quickie weekend course and going through a meaningless tick-and-flick RPL process.

“Even accounting for RPL, these courses should typically involve a minimum of 360 hours.”

Evans says RPL was never meant to be a shortcut to getting a so-called quickie qualification.

“RPL is a rigorous process to verify which skills people already have,” he says. “It assesses an individual’s competencies in great detail – competencies which may have been acquired through formal, non-formal and/or informal learning.

“The learner must submit a great deal of evidence, including referee reports, resumes, photographic and documentary evidence, and interviews for every competency required.”

Evans says the ARC won’t resile from its mission to clear the training landscape of ersatz, inadequate and misleading courses.

“It is important to remain vigilant,” he says, “and we welcome industry reports of any new short courses so that we can investigate and take action.”

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