Rachel Scanlon should be working as a mental health support worker by now.
Having battled her own mental health issues in the past, she enrolled last year in an online course at one of Victoria's leading TAFEs to get the skills to help others.
But since January, Chisholm Online has failed to provide her with lessons, assessments and, in some cases, even teachers.
Students the ABC has spoken to say the meagre coursework that has been available has been woefully inadequate – giving them little expertise to help people in their darkest hours.
"I've been very agitated. It's affected every part of my life," Ms Scanlon said.
She and more than 100 other students enrolled in a one-year Certificate IV in Mental Health have been at a standstill, unable to complete any subjects.
Some students say they have been delayed attaining their qualification by six months, leaving them unable to join the mental health frontline where workers are desperately needed.
"I was meant to finish in June," Ms Scanlon said.
"I've been offered three jobs, and I was unable to accept them because I don't feel competent to work in the industry, because I don't have the foundation skills that Chisholm online were meant to provide to me."
Industry compliance issues
Students doing the Certificate IV can go on to become mental health support workers and peer workers in community-based organisations.
Chisholm Online — part of the Chisholm Institute of TAFE — told students in February the course delays were because it had to urgently overhaul the course so it was compliant with industry standards.
The ABC has learned that despite knowing there were issues well before that, it still took in an intake of more than 60 new students in January.
Brody Posthuma quit a full-time job so he could start his Certificate IV in Mental Health at the start of the year.
"I think it's ridiculous that they accepted people to start off with if they knew it wasn't up to standard, it shouldn't have happened," he said.
"That took from me the opportunity to find somewhere else because by the time all these issues were actually brought up with us, nowhere around me was accepting students at the time."
He has decided to continue his studies elsewhere, and has been told he may not be able to get any study credit, or have his Austudy payments extended past the 12 months that it is meant to take to do the course.
"I will not be able to start the course again until August so that's, by that point, a good seven months that I have nothing to show for," he said.
In a statement to the ABC, Chisholm said the issues affected 200 students in three online courses: the Certificate IV in Mental Health, the Diploma in Mental Health and the Diploma in Alcohol and Other Drugs.
"A recent courseware review of these mental health Chisholm Online courses identified that several assessment items needed an urgent update to reflect the latest requirements of the sector," the statement read.
"Current students … were immediately advised of the situation and have been regularly updated throughout the process."
Despite students telling the ABC they have been set back many months — Chisholm said students who continue with them will only be delayed by approximately eight weeks.
They also had the option to transfer to on-campus equivalents, which have not been affected.
Serious questions over course
Students say it is not only the delay that has been concerning — but the "deep flaws" with the subject material and assessments they have been provided while the overhaul is taking place.
The coursework uploaded between January and April was filled with dozens of broken web links and unavailable webinars, while assessments did not align with the available teaching.
Sentences in learning materials and assessments sometimes did not make sense.
One assessment question provided to students studying Certificate IV in Mental Health reads:
"Documented your contribution in the discussion post. By sharing how you will work within your role to ensure you were following policies and procedures in each one of the situations faced and gaining and sharing feedback with supervisors and colleagues while considering what improvements you would make?"
Alarm bells rang for student Leigh Lambert when no teacher turned up for a unit on dealing with people with suicidal thoughts.
They had access to a 13-minute slide presentation, instead of the 15 hours of teaching over five weeks that Chisholm told them they would receive.
"Having come from recovering from [similar mental health] issues, I could see how inadequate it all was," Mr Lambert said.
"If it wasn't adequate for someone who had an intimate understanding of issues around suicide, how's it going to help … someone who's [just] come out of high school and wants to get involved in this?"
Chisholm Online has told students they will be able to pass subjects they were meant to finish once it has uploaded all the new assessments.
But many students remain concerned they have not actually received the training and learning they should have.
"It's no wonder that a lot of the level of care and expertise that a lot of people [in the mental health system] receive isn't really good if this is the kind of thing that's going on," Mr Posthuma said.
"You're going to have people going into the workforce in caring roles who just might not properly know how to support their clients."
They are are also questioning the worth of subjects they completed last year, and the qualifications of previous graduates of the three Chisholm courses under question.
"The urgency with which they apparently had to change everything is concerning. So that brings to mind for me the question, 'Well, how long has there been an issue?'", Mr Lambert said.
Chisholm said it had suspended subjects in Certificate IV in Mental Health in April and severely limited subject options for those enrolled in the Diploma of Mental Health and Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs.
It has promised it will have subjects back up and running for enrolled students this week, and has suspended new enrolments for now to focus on existing students.
"Chisholm acknowledges that the process of releasing assessments as they are updated has caused some frustration with students, but it means that the assessments are now improved and better aligned with the latest industry requirements," it said.
Students feel 'betrayed'
Students studying the three online courses have their fees paid by the state government under the "Free TAFE" initiative to get workers into understaffed sectors.
TAFEs are paid for every unit of work students complete, meaning Chisholm would not have received government-funding for students in affected courses for the first half of this year.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education and Training said they were disappointed that the Chisholm Institute of TAFE's online material for some courses had not been updated for industry currency.
"The Department understands that Chisholm has conducted reviews to ensure that students receive the training they deserve and is working to ensure that these issues are resolved as quickly as possible," they said.
Ms Scanlon, Mr Lambert and Mr Posthuma still want to work in mental health, but say they are none the wiser about when they will actually be qualified to join the sector's frontline.
"I feel betrayed by them, you know?" Mr Lambert said.
