There are 1000’s of people, mostly on the east coast that have signed up to what they thought was and told to be a formal qualification, only to find it almost impossible to complete. Training companies in QLD are running training courses up on the east coast marketed as either the S11 or General Induction. It is sold as a course that needs to be done to get a mining job and in some cases that it will help you to get your first mining job. Only to find out, often months later that the course can only be completed on a mine site in QLD, once you get a job.
So the course that they have signed you up for, that is going to help you get a job, but only once you have complete it, can only be completed once you get the job? Yes that’s right, after paying your $800, the student does the first 2 days of the training, completed often close to where the student lives. Yes, they fly the trainers in and they cover everything that doesn’t have to be done on the mine site. It is at this stage people are often pressured into signing up for a medical “so you are ready to go” for another $400+, if it hasn’t already been done. Then after adding the course to their resume they send it out to jobs all over the country. After months with no reply to their resume people start to do some more research. This is when after talking to employers or people in the industry that the important fact is discovered. That they have been signed up to a formal qualification that is only required for the coal industry in QLD and requires a job on one of these sites to be completed.
As is fair and reasonable, having spent so much money, you can see why people just give up. The sad thing is, not a lot can be done, because these companies, often RTO's haven’t broken any laws, as such. They haven’t lied to anyone, as such, their only fault is not pointing out some of the facts, like the course requiring a job before it can be completed. You need to be careful of websites claiming to know about how to get a mining job, most aren't in the industry and don’t know how the industry works. They often think that the industry is run like the construction industry, they often unwittingly suggest formal training providers like RTO’s that sell this S11 or General Induction training without knowing. Any website telling you to look at RTO’s for training knows little about how the industry works and you should be careful of.
I have not mention any companies by name as I don’t what to get into a slanging match, I only want to draw to the public’s attention what is happening. My advice when signing up for training like this, is to ask the company providing the training what has to be done to complete it. If any media are reading this and want to follow up I am more than happy to talk.
To those that have been affected, if you still have the dream of going mining, then tell me your story in the link across the page and I will do what I can to try to put you on the right path.
