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A Melbourne TAFE will pay $33 million to aspiring commercial pilots who claimed an aviation course didn't give them the skills or knowledge they needed to be licensed.
A settlement was reached between students who enrolled in the Box Hill Institute course between December 2015 and March 2020. The agreement was formally approved in the Supreme Court this week.
Students claimed misleading and deceptive conduct by the institute, which said its diploma of aviation would enable them to meet the minimum standards to be licensed with 14 months full-time study or two years part-time.
But course content, provided externally by Gobel Aviation trading as Soar, did not meet those minimum standards and exams for the course were at a lower standard than the pilot licence exams, according to their legal claim.
There was no system for giving students feedback on their progress and the students took exams they were required to mark themselves, students in the class action led by Nerita Somers said.
A shortage of flight instructors meant there was no continuity in training and sessions weren't held frequently enough for students to retain skills.
The payout figure includes more than $5 million in legal fees and $4.8 million in administration costs.
A separate proceeding against Soar was discontinued.
An administrator has been appointed to determine the breakdown of compensation to individual students.
