Desperate times for Dan's young family

DAN Bowman is getting desperate.

With a wife and five kids to support, the body blow of being sacked only days before Christmas hit hard.

He was one of the hundreds of people left jobless after the collapse of SmartCity Vocational College's administrative arm, SC Admin Pty Ltd, on December 16 last year.

Mr Bowman can recall his boss, SmartCity CEO Glenn Spong, sitting in a room watching he and his colleagues "working like crazy" moving office equipment into a new campus.

He'd barely made it home that night when he received the "kick in the guts" that was an email advising the company he worked for had been placed into liquidation.

"He (Glenn Spong) was sitting there in the room watching us working like crazy for his company," Mr Bowman said.

He said what had been harder to swallow was that the demise of SC Admin was known well in advance within the company.

"It would've been better if we got told," Mr Bowman said.

Starting at SmartCity in telesales, Mr Bowman moved into a service desk role, where he worked with students, advisors and other staff.

Towards the end of SC Admin's life Mr Bowman said the call centre was fielding phone calls "left, right and centre", many from students uncertain about the future of their studies.

He said they were advised to tell students "everything was fine" and that some of the campuses were going through a relocation over the Christmas.

Mr Bowman said the decline of the company had been a surprise, but alarm bells had started to ring when he began fielding calls from landlords seeking months of rent in arrears from various campuses around the country.

He took three calls in four days from landlords in Gympie, Toowoomba and Cairns which signalled to him the company was in serious trouble.

He now finds himself working a few security shifts on weekends while his wife's fledgling make-up business is establishing itself.

It's a difficult time for the man who's been in sales or management since 2001.

"I know what I've got to offer," he said.

"It is frustrating."

He said he had applied for plenty of roles, but was getting desperate, with car loans, credit card bills, school fees and everyday bills all starting to mount.

Mr Bowman said he was owed about $3000 following SC Admin's collapse, an amount he said would make a world of difference to their current situation.

SmartCity's Facebook page advised on January 27 its 17 campuses had reopened.

Glenn Spong was unavailable for comment.