The NSW skills minister's office is following up on calls for an investigation into issues of “rubber stamping” within the TAFE's distance education institution following a meeting with a state Greens MP.

Skills Minister John Barilaro agreed to look at long-known allegations of misconduct within the state's Online Training and Education Network (OTEN) in a meeting with Greens Jamie Parker.

A spokesperson for Mr Barilaro confirmed to Yahoo7 that TAFE's head office was investigating the matter, but could offer no further details.

The alleged misconduct at the online college was based on allegations made within the health and hygiene faculty that a number of teachers were not properly assessing their students' skills and abilities.

According to the objections raised by faculty members, students enrolled in hygiene courses were being marked as competent without their competency or knowledge being properly assessed.

However, these students would then be qualified – on paper at least – to work in dental practices, nail salons and tattoo parlours and other businesses requiring high standards of hygiene and sanitisation.

Yahoo7 has obtained an email regarding Mr Parker's enquiry into the matter, dated April 4 – nearly one month after the meeting between he and Minister Barilaro took place.





View photos NSW Greens MP for Balmain Jamie Parker. Source: AAP More

The email suggested the minister's office was following up on the allegations raised in the meeting, but the details pertaining to the investigation have not been forthcoming, despite the minister's apparent insistence of urgency.

According to Mr Parker's email, the minister had agreed to follow up with the department secretary about the allegations of misconduct with a request to supply documents concerning the investigation.

Mr Parker wrote that Mr Barilaro had “confirmed that his office has informed the Secretary of the Department of the issue so he is aware of the misconduct allegation".

"They have also requested the Director to retrieve the records of the original complaint, report about any investigation that have already taken place and asked him to investigate the matter and report to the Minister,” it read.

After more than a month there has not been a solid update on the request, despite one person present at the early March meeting recalling Mr Barilaro insisting the matter be followed reported on “shortly”.

Initial concerns about the alleged “rubber stamping” of student assignments date back as far as 2012, when faculty members reported numerous students having several of their assessments changed to “passed” on the same day.

In some cases, students' final assessments were stamped and changed to complete before they were even attempted. As OTEN is an online training college, students apply to sit their assessments at their own pace.

OTEN has denied any misconduct among its staff, suggesting a cursory investigation into allegations of easy approvals found nothing untoward.

View photos Skills Minister John Barilaro. Source: Supplied More

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