English language colleges and the 10 000 people who work in them are running out of time

 Closing the borders ended the flow of people from overseas coming to Australia to learn English.

Brett Blacker from English Australia says that while half a dozen colleges have closed, JobKeeper has helped keep most in business, teaching on-line to students in Australia, but when the current crop complete, that’s it.

It is why he has written to the prime minister calling for the programme to continue until March, so there are teachers ready to go when students return.

And return they will, when they are allowed. Mr Blacker says the key leading indicators, applications and inquiries are good.  The problem is that if colleges close and staff move on before the border re-opens the public providers remaining will struggle to meet demand for teachers and classrooms, there were 170 000 ELICOS students in 2019.

And ELICOS not being back in business will be very bad for the rest of the post-school sector. Some 70 per cent of English-learners across all visa categories were on a pathway to further study.