Ten private colleges have been stripped of their funding by the NSW government, documents released under freedom of information have revealed, with institutions offering diplomas in aged care, early childhood education and business administration all failing to meet minimum standards under the Smart and Skilled program.
A further 17 colleges have been suspended, according to the documents obtained by NSW Labor, but the government is refusing to release the names of those colleges, despite more than 8000 students being put at risk of having taxpayer funding for the colleges withdrawn if the government decides to terminate their contracts.
Labor's Skills education spokeswoman Prue Car called on Deputy Premier John Barilaro, who holds the Skills and Industry portfolio, to release the names of the colleges his department has suspended.
"This information has the power to protect thousands of people from the potential heartache and stress that comes from signing up with dodgy providers," she said.
Mr Barilaro's office referred questions to the Department of Industry. A spokesman said naming suspended providers could cause students undue or unwarranted concern when the breaches could be minor.
"In this regard, NSW is no different from the national regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority," he said.
The release of the list of colleges comes after a six-month freedom of information request in the NSW Civil Administrative Tribunal to have their identities revealed.
Among those to have their funding terminated is one of Australia's largest vocational education providers, Careers Australia, which closed its Newcastle campus in July after the NSW government withdrew funding, leaving 300 students in the lurch. It has up to 20,000 students enrolled across the country.
The documents reveal funding was withdrawn from the multi-campus college for bringing Smart and Skilled into disrepute, failing to properly train and assess students, non-compliance with record keeping, and failure to provide records and evidence upon request.
From 2013, the company received $190 million in Commonwealth funding under the now scrapped VET FEE Help loans scheme. It subsequently paid back $44 million last year after it admitted it had breached Australian consumer law and "engaged in unconscionable conduct" while it enrolled students in some of the poorest, most remote communities in Australia into thousands of dollars of debt.
The total funding it received under the NSW government's Smart and Skilled program has not been publicly released. The Auditor-General has valued the scheme at $680 million.
Other colleges named in the documents as having their public funding stripped from them include the George Street-based Western Institute of Technology, the Industry Education and Training Services group and Alexandria's Wise Education group.
The Western Institute of Technology only ever enrolled one student under Smart and Skilled but continues to offer privately funded diplomas in business, English and leadership for up to $8000 while the Industry Education and Training Services group is still advertising the government's initiative of 200,000 Smart and Skilled Scholarships on its website.
The Wise Education group was once one of the state's largest benefactors of the program after it took in more than 2000 students on taxpayer-funded certificates in customer engagement, business sales and record keeping.
It continues to advertise tourism and hospitality courses at the Australia Zoo despite having its Smart and Skilled funding revoked for failing to meet standards and using subcontracting arrangements without consent.
Three of the colleges were registered to receive funding after providing false information in an application. They were shut down before being able to enrol any students.
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