Student ‘not fit’ for TAFE

A YOUNG Burnie woman feels she has been targeted after being advised to quit a TAFE adventure guiding course by her teachers. Abbie Roetz, 24, said her fitness was questioned by staff who told her they had no faith she would be able to finish the course. But Ms Roetz said she had worked hard and lost 50kg last year through strenuous regular hikes.

ABBIE Roetz was in her element on the rocky slopes of Maria Island’s Bishop and Clerk as she hiked towards the summit with her TasTAFE adventure guiding class early this year.

The 24-year-old Burnie woman, who lost almost 50kg last year, walked at the tail end of the Certificate III group.

“I was admittedly slower than the rest of my class and we were told it was going to be a fitness test ... but I could see the tail of the group almost the whole time,” Ms Roetz said.

“When we got back to campus I asked my teacher if it was going to be a problem ... and he said it would not be.”

Five days later, Ms Roetz said staff pulled her aside and advised her to withdraw from the course.

“[They] told me they had absolutely no faith I would be able to complete the course and that my fitness wasn’t where it needed to be.”

The hospitality professional, who had left her job at Cradle Mountain Lodge and moved to Hobart to do the months-long course, said she was given two days to make her decision.

“I said, ‘with all due respect, I’m staying. I’ve worked hard to be here, this is what I want’.”

Ms Roetz said regular, strenuous hiking in the mountains had played a key part in her dramatic weight loss, when she dropped down from 140kg,

When COVID-19 restrictions came into place the next week, the course went online and Ms Roetz struggled with some elements of it.

“I withdrew because I wasn’t getting the support,” she said. “The teachers obviously didn’t believe in me and I felt like they were making it harder for me.”

She said the final straw was a staff email reminding her “of the importance of professionalism in the worksplace and to not swear at the teachers”.

She attributes that correspondence to a casual conversation about lockdown earlier that day in a phonecall with a teacher, in which she’d she said: “That’s a bit shit, but it is what it is”.

“That’s when I felt really targeted and I didn’t want to put myself through the stress.”

In response to Ms Roetz’s claims, TasTAFE chief executive Jenny Dodd acted swiftly to speak with the student and facilitate her engagement with the support office and the formal complaints process.

“Students are of paramount importance to TasTAFE,” Ms Dodd said.

“We take all complaints extremely seriously and investigate all allegations made by students.

“A TasTAFE student support officer is working with this student to help manage their career goals and how TasTAFE can support them.”

Ms Dodd said the course was highly rated, with a 2018 survey of guiding and fitness students finding 98 per cent would recommend the training to others.

THE TEACHERS OBVIOUSLY DIDN’T BELIEVE IN ME AND I FELT LIKE THEY WERE MAKING IT HARDER FOR ME

ABBIE ROETZ