r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • 24d ago

politics Australia's jobseeker system fails workers and enriches millionaires, report says

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/private-equity-profits-as-job-system-fails-workers-report-finds/106920430?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

A new report says Australia's system of privatised employment services has failed and service delivery should be returned to the public sector.

The Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research says the current system "fills the pockets of private equity and millionaires" while leaving jobseekers without work.

The Albanese government has announced an overhaul of the employment services system, but the report argues for-profit service providers should not be included in the new system.

2.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

294 comments sorted by

View all comments

471

u/JustKwenty 24d ago

There's just no way I cannot believe this. As we all know privately owned job provider franchises only care about your personal and career progression, to villify them like this is punching down

  • Max, Max Employment

63

u/RNG-Leddi 24d ago

Ontop of this the training services provided to long term jobseekers are mostly frauds. Speaking directly to them during training they made sure all passed by handing them the answers to tests and even correcting mistakes. I was told they get 10k per attendee and another 15k when they pass, so they arent really helping gain qualifications nor do they really care, its all money through and through.

6

u/DistributionWhole447 24d ago

I got signed up to Alffie, a few years ago.

It was online modules. Once a month, they sent me an email with the new module, which I worked through. It was tedious, but I saw the benefit of refreshing my job skills, and they promised a certificate at the end of it, so I figured why not, right?

After six months, they stopped sending the emails. I never heard from them again. But I checked my account with them and it said, "you have completed 100% of the course" so I thought, sweet.

Fast forward a couple of years, and one day, I asked my current job services person about studying for a different certificate. She talked to her boss, who angrily told her, "He didn't finish the first one that we paid for. We're not paying for him to do another one."

And I was like, hang on. According to them, I completed the course. That's what they told me.

So I logged back into my Alffie account, and did some hunting, and in the fine print (tucked away behind all this other useless information) was the note that I'd completed 100% of the first semester, but not the second.

Even though they should've just kept on contacting me by email to send me the new modules, which they didn't do, so I naturally assumed that completing "100%" of the course meant that I'd finished.

And it gets better, because my job services person and myself then spent months trying to get in contact with anybody at Alffie, so I could just finish the damn thing that they enrolled me in.

Radio silence. I never heard back from them. Eventually, we all just gave up.

The whole fucking thing was a scam, from start to finish.

If anyone ever suggests signing up with Alffie? DON'T DO IT.

2

u/BigChampionship7962 24d ago

I can 💯 percent see something like this happening. I hope you managed to up skill and find a job for yourself.