Skills, Training and Industrial Relations Minister Michael Pettersson needs to intervene. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Canberra Institute of Technology obviously has to make some choices about how it operates and what it teaches.
It can’t keep losing millions of dollars a year and continue going to the government for top-ups like the $5.3 million it received in June.
CIT won’t say it, but courses and the people who teach them are on the line.
But is that where the savings should come from?
Remedial massage therapists last week took the last resort of going to the media about fears that CIT has it in for a course on which the sector has relied for 35 years.
Over the past decade, CIT has already scaled back what was originally an advanced two-year diploma course, first to 18 months and then to the 12-month diploma that is now, in the parlance, ”off scope”, as CIT weighs what to do.
That means no students graduating and the pipeline drying up in an area of high demand.
CIT has accused one business of spreading false information, but Region could have spoken to any number of clinics that say the same thing — the diploma is in peril.
The organisation says massage won’t disappear from the course offerings, but that could mean short courses or micro-units that are basically meaningless for anyone seeking serious training and accreditation to practise.
It says consultation is taking place, but that sector says any talks that have taken place have been due to its own initiative, and CIT’s criteria for a viable course are dubious.
Clinics also have support across the health sector from allied health practitioners and doctors as well as sporting clubs, with which they work as part of delivering comprehensive care across a multitude of conditions.
CIT implies that private colleges could fill any gap in the market, but the sector says these courses would not deliver the high standard for which CIT is known nationally.
If CIT scraps the diploma, it would be undermining health services and the wellbeing of patients and clients who benefit from remedial massage, which, for the uninitiated, is an acknowledged therapeutic treatment, not simply relaxation.
This is something that should alarm Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith and have her knocking on the door of Skills and Training Minister Michael Pettersson.
The diploma had even been upgraded and also includes two new nation-leading pain-management units. It was ready to go in 2025 but now sits on the shelf.
If a course that meets a great need in the community, fills a high demand for new entrants and has a strong reputation is at risk, what else is CIT contemplating cutting from its offerings?
We simply do not know because CIT isn’t saying.
CIT needs to look elsewhere for savings and think more about generating revenue.
Instead of trimming operating costs or culling its top-heavy administration, CIT appears set to shrink its offerings in the name of streamlining.
This could also include offering more short courses for quick turnaround, despite their doubtful value.
CIT says it will make a decision next year on the remedial massage diploma and presumably the other courses in the firing line.
It has attracted a flurry of favourable headlines this year for the marvellous new Woden campus after the tumult of the contracts scandal and corruption finding against its former CEO Leanne Cover.
But for all that gleaming piece of real estate, CIT should remember its core mission. That shouldn’t include axing courses that have served, and should continue to serve, the community well.
