Students caught in ACN's decline
Australian Careers Network (ACN) has slid into voluntary administration, leaving its 15,000 students with no classes.
In a statement issued to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), ACN announced John Lindholm and George Georges of Ferrier Hodgson had been appointed as administrators.
Ferrier Hodgson issued a statement saying it was urgently assessing the business.
ACN is behind a number of private training colleges, and the administrators says one of their first moves will be to try to sell businesses including Wizard Corporate Training, International Training College, and Centre of Vocational Education.
These colleges have about 750 students in total.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had been preparing to undertake legal action against ACN for allegations of false and misleading behaviour, and unconscionable conduct in marketing.
But the administrators say that with the company now collapsed, those legal proceedings would be stayed.
The ACCC had alleged that ACN’s Phoenix Institute enrolled over 9,000 students in 17,000 courses to take more than $100 million in Commonwealth funding.