A taxpayer-funded course run by one of Australia’s biggest employment service providers gives jobseekers instructions on how to shower properly and asks them in a questionnaire if one of the reasons they are unemployed is because they are “overweight” or “lazy”.
Wise Employment is among dozens of privatised job agencies contracted by the federal government to run the $500m Employability Skills Training program to help jobseekers “become job-ready by providing intensive pre-employment training”.
But months after participants raised concerns about Wise Employment’s version of the program, prompting an investigation, jobseekers and advocates have levelled new claims that the course still “degrades and humiliates” those looking for work.
According to the course workbook, jobseekers are initially asked to complete a questionnaire about their barriers to employment.
“Do you have barriers to employment you need to acknowledge and control?” the jobseeker is asked, before being told to tick the ones that are applicable.
The list of dozens of possible answers includes being “overweight” or “underweight”, being “lazy”, not wanting to come off welfare payments or having a bad attitude. Jobseekers are then asked to write out solutions to how they will “control” and overcome these issues.
In another section that advises jobseekers on the importance of “personal presentation in the workplace”, jobseekers are instructed on maintaining proper hygiene and are given directions for showering, washing hair and shaving daily.
Ways to “improve personal hygiene” include: “Washing your hands with soap after going to the toilet, brushing your teeth twice a day, covering your mouth and nose with a tissue (or your sleeve) when sneezing or coughing and washing your hands after handling pets and other animals.”
Other parts of the online or in-person course include lessons about the jobs market, interview techniques, communication in the workforce and health and safety, among other topics.
One Melbourne-based jobseeker, 25, who did not want to be identified, said some of the material was “quite degrading, isn’t it?”.
“You’re telling adults, some with tertiary degrees, to wash their hands with soap and water or to go into the toilet,” said the jobseeker, who has ample work history, responsible service of alcohol and responsible conduct of gaming qualifications and two university degrees. The jobseeker was signed up to the course but did not undertake it after work circumstances changed.
Privatised employment services have been plagued by claims that job agencies provide poor-quality courses and training for jobseekers, including potentially demeaning lessons about personal hygiene.
The new allegations surrounding the Wise course come after the chair of a parliamentary inquiry investigating the system, the Labor MP Julian Hill, called for a new independent watchdog with powers to oversee pricing and quality.
After being contacted by Guardian Australia, Wise Employment said the material was “inappropriate” and that it had suspended new referrals to the subcontractor, Paramount Training.
“We are concerned to learn about certain content in a training handbook used by this sub-contractor and Wise is now reviewing our relationship with this provider while suspending new referrals,” Wise said.
This is the second time Paramount Training has been investigated by Wise Employment after Guardian Australia revealed in August that jobseekers were being made to watch YouTube videos on safety protocols at a Dutch gas company and the application guidelines for a Victorian government tender as part of their training.
Paramount Training said the investigation in May had resulted in one person being fired, and that it had introduced more training for staff and a “monitoring” and “feedback” system for participants.
“We would like to apologise for the content highlighted recently in our handbook,” a spokesperson said. “To ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future, we will be contracting a learning adviser to conduct an in-depth review of our handbook.”
Employability Skills Training is compulsory for some jobseekers in the government’s main Workforce Australia employment program if they have been unemployed for four months.
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union’s Jeremy Poxon said jobseekers survived on “some of the lowest payments in the OECD” and “instead of helping them, the government and providers are forcing them into nonsense courses that punish and stigmatise them”.
The secretary of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations issued a direct warning to job agencies about training this year, saying: “It fails the pub test, it does not meet community expectations and it does not meet my expectations.”
A department spokesperson declined to say whether the materials in the Wise course passed the pub test.
“The department acknowledges that the provider is now reviewing the content and we will continue to engage with all employment services providers to ensure the language being used is appropriate for the audience,” the spokesperson said.
“We welcome feedback from course participants about the quality and suitability of course content, and feedback on its contracted EST providers.
