Authorities have launched a crackdown on child care training organisations.

The Federal Government will increase audits, consider more on the job training, enforce the use of penalties and establish a ‘preferred provider’ scheme following the release of a new report into the training of child care workers.

The new Training for Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia Report undertaken by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) shows the vast majority of child care training organisations are complying with training standards, but it raised concerns about the validity of assessment carried out by a small number of training organisations.

“Child care providers have told me they have ‘blackbanned’ graduates of specific training organisations because they do not have confidence in the competency of their graduates, particularly where those courses are ‘miraculously’ short, which leaves graduates of those courses with less chance of getting a job,” says Assistant Minister for Education and Training Senator Simon Birmingham.

“I want students to know in advance which training organisations are well regarded by child care employers and to be able to make an informed choice that gives them the best chance of future employment.”

Senator Birmingham said he would also ask the newly-established Australian Industry and Skills Committee to examine child care Training Package requirements to ensure they clearly articulated the standards expected by industry, especially the adequacy of existing workplace learning components.

“Nothing beats well supervised, on the job training and experience, especially when dealing with children, which must be adequate in both duration and quality,” he said.

“Training organisations must be able to justify to ASQA any significant variations from the time periods described in the Australian Qualifications Framework and must be able to demonstrate how students can robustly meet all of the competency requirements in a shorter timeframe.

“If short cuts are being taken, then I expect penalties to be applied.”