The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has moved to cancel over 3500 qualifications in aged care, disability support, mental health, childcare, and community services issued by Arizona College Pty Ltd.
This action follows a compliance investigation that uncovered an alleged cash-for-diplomas scheme, raising serious concerns about the integrity of vocational education and training (VET) in Australia.
The investigation found that Arizona College, based in Docklands, Melbourne, failed to meet registration conditions, including financial viability requirements. It was also determined that the college issued qualifications without adequate assessment and did not ensure students had met all necessary requirements before receiving their certificates or diplomas.
These qualifications, issued between January 2024 and June 2025, include Certificate IVs in disability, ageing support, mental health, and child, youth, and family intervention. Graduates with these credentials were eligible to work with some of Australia’s most vulnerable people, such as in disability support, residential care, rehabilitation centres, and outreach programs.
ASQA notified 3569 affected graduates of its intent to cancel 3717 qualifications and statements of attainment. Students were given until mid-July 2025 to provide evidence that they had received the necessary training and assessment to validate their qualifications.
However, the regulator has since proceeded with the cancellations, citing significant issues that pose potential safety risks to individuals, workplaces, and vulnerable community members.
This is not an isolated incident. In June 2025, ASQA revoked over 4200 credentials from SPES Education Pty Ltd for similar reasons, including Certificates III and IV in individual support, ageing support, and disability support. Additionally, the registration of Christa College Pty Ltd, which offered early childhood education qualifications, was cancelled in July 2025.
These cancellations are part of a broader crackdown on fraudulent practices in the VET sector. Since November 2024, ASQA has cancelled more than 25,500 qualifications held by over 23,000 individuals, reflecting ongoing efforts to restore confidence in the system.
The federal government has supported these efforts, allocating $37.8 million in 2023 to improve VET provision, with over $30 million directed to ASQA. This funding enabled the establishment of an Integrity Unit and a tip-off line to combat fraudulent behaviour.
ASQA’s investigations and enforcement team is currently managing 189 serious matters involving 154 providers, with 74 per cent of cases related to alleged fraud, such as bogus qualifications, fabricated assessments, and funding fraud.
The cancellations come at a challenging time for the aged care and disability sectors, which are already grappling with workforce shortages. The loss of thousands of qualified workers is likely to exacerbate these pressures, raising concerns about the impact on service delivery for vulnerable Australians.
ASQA has emphasised that maintaining the integrity of the VET system is critical and will continue to work across government to prevent and disrupt non-genuine providers.
I applaud ASQA for their actions. There are so many individuals out there who claim to be certified and qualified caregivers. No way on earth would I let them near a sick cat. These organisations should be struck off for issuing out these certificates. Keep up the good work ASQA.
The only way to ensure we have well trained people caring for the elderly in aged care is to give the ANF responsibility for training and accreditation. Not without its issues but I can’t see a viable alternative. Plus, put money into aged care instead of wasting it on submarines that we will probably never get, any will most likely be obsolete when/if they arrive . This is never going to happen so we have to put up with an exploitative and incompetent system.
Wouldn’t it be good if the government department responsible for awarding the VET contracts had checked they were competent earlier, and then in light of their mistake in awarding the contracts was now offering clear, alternative and free training to the trainees to make up for messing it up in the first place.
Are they greedy corrupt foreigners,as usual?
The Managers and Directors of these businesses should be banned from ever working in education services or any other activity funded by Government
IT is a joke. The training needs to be brought back into the TAFE system and STOP this competency testing. You pass the exam or you dont. Students complain if they are deemed not yet qualified and teachers trainers are under pressure to simply pass everyone. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Stop the racial student rights etc aspect and everyone MUST sit an actual exam and be assessed accordingly. The assessment MUST be clearer as to what has to be achieved to pass and not some subjective assessor being pressured to pass them. If they fail then they must do it again. Two strikes and their out.