What to do when qualifications get cancelled by ASQA
- Specialised VET Services
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
At the time of writing, since late 2024, the National VET Regulator Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has taken action to revoke approximately 43,000 AQF certification documentation issued by providers found to have:
Acted fraudualently by issuing qualifications and Statements of Attainment without proper training and assessment
and/or
Issued qualifications and Statements of Attainment under critically non-compliant training and assessment practices, that is, under circumstances that did not meet the regulatory obligations for ongoing registration under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVR Act 2011), including the requirements contained in the Standards for RTOs and those under the Fit and Proper Person and Financial Viability Requirements.
Reasons for why qualifications are getting cancelled by ASQA
In terms of not meeting the circumstances for ongoing registration, common issues found in the operations of ex-providers include issuing qualifications and Statements of Attainment without:
Ensuring sufficient amount of training to allow students to meet competency requirements
Having trainers/assessors with the requisite credentials to deliver and assess VET
Having access to necessary resources for training delivery
Using appropriate assessment tools, systems and resources to support compliant training and assessment
Monitoring third-party providers to ensure they were compliant
An assessment system that complied with the requirements of the relevant training packages and the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence - including for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assessments
In some other cases, additional issues have included instances where the ex-provider:
Awarded competencies (including via RPL) after ceasing delivery of training and assessment
Did not prevent unauthorised individuals from accessing the systems to issue AQF certification documentation
In some cases, perhaps students knew outright the qualifications* (collective term used from this point for qualifications and Statements of Attainment) were being awarded without proper training and assessment (complicit in the fraud - "pay for quals").
Perhaps in some cases they had an inkling due to the shortened/easier/cheaper route compared to other providers (suspected something might be 'dodgy' but not explicitly complicit) or else simply believed they were getting an unbelievable bargain.
Or perhaps in some cases, students completed their studies believing the course was compliant and the qualification they've been issued was legitimate and worth something.
On this, we cannot make definitive comment. However, in all cases, people who've had their AQF ceritifcation documentation cancelled by ASQA are no longer qualified by means of that document.
What does this mean for those students?
For people who've had their qualifications cancelled, this signals a number of things:
They've "done their dough" - the money (and time) they've spent on the qualification is lost and payment will be required to undertake further processes to demonstrate genuine competency. Further time and resource investment will be required to achieve competency via a reputable provider
Any employment contingent on holding the qualification is at risk
Any income contingent on employment is at risk
Any residency status contingent on employment is at risk
What does this mean for RTOs?
ASQA have been very clear about the fact the cancelled qualifications mean the underlying training and/or assessment cannot be relied upon as evidence of competency, and for RTOs the issue is at least three fold:
Impacts on RTO staff who rely on the qualifications for what they deliver and/or assess - i.e. for vocational competency. With the cancellation of the AQF certification documentation, these trainers/assessors can no longer rely on the qualifications
Issues linked to students who were trained and assessed by people who have subsequently had their qualifications cancelled, meaning at the time, they were not qualified and compliant to be making assessment decisions - thereby rendering the qualifications issued to those students no longer valid
Issues linked to AQF certification documentation issued on the basis of a now-cancelled qualification. For example, having issued credit transfer based on the qualification presented at the time
So what should RTOs do?
RTO action is devired from the implications listed above.
In the first instance, ASQA is recommending RTOs monitor the qualifications being cancelled. ASQA's website has the announcements, VET PD Group on LinkedIn posts the updates, and this spreadsheet details all of the listed cancellations so far. You can search for the qualification, unit code or ex-provider name or code.
If it is determined that RTO staff for whom that qualification is mandatory are impacted, pull them out of training and assessment duties effective immediately. This is critical as they no longer meet the requirements for competency under the Outcome Standards and may also fail meeting the requirements of the Credential Policy.
Staff will need to demonstrate competency before they can resume training and/or assessment duties linked to that qualification. This might entail enrolling with a reputable provider and undergoing RPL or taking the course via a train and assess pathway. ASQA advises that individuals could be moved into temporary roles that do not require the qualification, or work under supervision in the interim if conditions are permissible - as outlined in the Credential Policy..
Because competency credentials are impacted, any training and/or assessment completed under the individual with the cancelled qualifications is now also impacted - meaning the RTO will need to review all competencies issued as a result of delivery by the individual with the cancelled qualifications. ASQA advises RTOs to conduct a risk assessment on the competencies already issued to determine the next steps, including the potential need to contact the students to advise them that the qualifications are affected.
ASQA also advises that where the cancelled qualification was a mandatory one - e.g. Certificate IV in TAE - and the training and assessment was conducted by a staff member whose TAE qualification was cancelled, the RTO must review and validate training and reassess students where appropriate (ASQA IQ, April 2026).
For students who received credit transfer from a now cancelled qualification (or Statement of Attainment), the original evidence used for as the basis of the credit transfer is no longer valid and neither is the credit transfer. ASQA advises that RTOs must advise the student that their credit transfer will be revoked and they will need to complete a process to determine competency - either via RPL or train and assess (ASQA IQ, April 2026).
When a student legitimately tries to enrol in a course to do this, in some cases, the USI transcript may still show the cancelled qualification. This means the student will have difficulty accessing funding until the cancelled qualification is removed from their USI record. In these cases, ASQA advice is to:
Confirm with the student that they received a notice of cancellation from ASQA
Once confirmed, enrol the student into the relevant course as requested
Report training and assessment as normal
Encourage the student to keep the ASQA cancellation notice as part of their personal records (ASQA IQ, April 2026).
That's a lot of work for RTOs?!
Yes, it is. Especially when you consider that as at the end of April 2026, 435 different units of competency issued as Statements of Attainment have been cancelled and 97 different qualifications have been cancelled - both across 43,000+ individual issuances.
The knock-on impacts from - for example - just one assessor who holds a now-cancelled Certificate IV in TAE boggles the mind. The scope of impacted, other individuals who may have then gone on to train others again.... frightening!
For students - ASQA will use last known address details to contact impacted students directly with a notice of intent to cancel. Students are given advice for next steps in those letters. There is an assumption in place that ASQA can even reach those students, noting that some of the cancellations affect documents issued years ago (does the student still have the same contact details??)
For employers - much like RTOs, they will need to risk-assess operations and for roles that require qualifications, the now unqualified staff will need to be stood down from current duties (hopefully into other temporary duties) until genuine competency can be determined. Unlike RTOs, employers in industry may not be getting VET-sector related news and updates
For RTOs - stay abreast of the updates, use the cancellation spreadsheet to support investigations, be proactive in managing identified issues and risks, and document everything!
-This article is AITAS Rating 1
What is the AITAS?
28.4.26
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