Army veteran, 38, is told he must REPEAT Year 10 if he wants his dream job after his old school lost certificate showing he passed his exams two decades ago
- A Brisbane man has struggled to get a job after losing his year 10 certificates
- He fears he may have to repeat the school year despite being 38 years-old
- The Department of Education admitted to him it had ‘misplaced’ the records
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
An army veteran may be forced to repeat year 10 after his old high school lost his certificates.
Linus Wilson, who attended Toowong State High School in Brisbane in the 1990s, hoped to rejoin the army after losing his hospitality job thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.
Eager to rejoin the Australian Defence Force, the 38-year-old soon realised he needed a copy of his education certificates to prove he finished school.
But he was told the records were lost by the Department for Education.
‘This has forced me into a situation where I need to re-do my Year 10 education with Tafe even though I have completed year 10,’ he told the Courier Mail.
A former soldier is concerned he will have to go to a TAFE to study Year 10 maths and English after officials ‘misplaced’ his completion certificates (pictured, a TAFE campus in Sydney)
‘I’m really determined to be a soldier again, I am an ex-servicemen and I really don’t fancy going to TAFE and studying Year 10 maths and English at 38 because of the incompetency of the Department of education in losing this information, and it’s not just me it’s everyone front that time.’
His former school was shut down in 2006 and was replaced by the Queensland Academy of Sciences, Maths and Technology.
Realising he needed the forms, Mr Wilson contacted the Queensland Curriculum Assessment Authority, and was then told to contact the local Education Queensland office.
He explained that while they were ‘helpful’, he was soon told the records ‘didn’t exist’ and had been ‘misplaced.’
Mr Wilson then asked the Department of Education for an alternative certificate to prove he finished Year 10.
The department explained that such documents are only required to be kept by the government for seven years.
It has since found his Year 10 term one report, and Year 11 admission records, but not his Year 10 completion documents.