Private colleges that offer short-term English courses to overseas students are facing financial ruin by border closures wrought by COVID-19 and the looming end of the JobKeeper scheme.

Five colleges, in Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Cairns, have already shut their doors and the industry is bracing for more closures in the weeks ahead. In many cases, the “ELICOS” sector is a launching pad for Australia’s $40 billion international student industry.

It plays a critical role in allowing thousands of international students to get a foot in the door, boosting their English skills so they can start university or other study, and gives them a better chance of securing casual work.

Brett Blacker, from industry peak body English Australia, said there would be widespread pain if Jobkeeper and state-based rent moratoriums ceased.

Federal education department figures show the ELICOS sector was made up of 156,570 students in 2019, before the pandemic. Chinese students made up about a quarter of the cohort, followed by visa-holders from Colombia, Brazil, Thailand and Japan.

While he supported border closures for health reasons, Mr Blacker said the sector needed government assistance similar to what was recently provided to the aviation and tourism industries. Mr Blacker said the industry would continue to lobby the federal government before the JobKeeper deadline.

 ”  With competition — particularly from the UK, USA and Canada — really fierce at the moment, the risk is Australia will lose out.  “