Education group sheds 600 workers Sarah Danckert Employment Legal disputes threaten to spell end of Australian Careers Network Embattled vocational education outfit Australian Careers Network is operating on a skeleton staff, after shedding 600 positions in the past six months. 
Fairfax Media understands only about 20 contractors and some key management personnel remain working at the Australian Securities Exchange-listed group.
About 200 jobs are believed to have gone in recent months, with staff contacting Fairfax Media over concerns about the longevity of the company once considered a market darling.
Australian Careers Network is yet to release its accounts for the six months to   December 31. Its shares have been suspended since   October, after news broke it had lost its funding, and will remain suspended until it posts its half- year accounts.
The company revealed earlier in 2016 it had burnt through $10 million of its cash reserves in the three months to   December 31. It has only $13.4 million in cash to hand to meet its operating costs.
Scores of qualified trainers and teaching staff from Australian Careers Network's registered training organisations have left the company. Support staff have also been let go in droves. It is believed most of the trainers were made redundant last week. There is hope within Australian Careers Network that once its legal disputes with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner and the Department of Education are completed, the company can begin to rebuild its business.
However, one former staff member told Fairfax Media "the company is stuffed and the sooner everyone realises it the better".
Another said the company was finalising its files in the hope of getting a final tranche of funding through from the federal government at census date.
Most of the jobs lost were in Victoria.
Founded by former police officer Ivan Brown and Prakash Charan, Australian Careers Network listed in   December 2014 amid a crackdown in the sector after trouble at some colleges, including institutions owned by Vocation Ltd.