Yes I agree with some of your points Tackleburger,
The £3000 I refer too, is for a full house of ACS not just selected modules and possibly some catch up extra training if required. But, course prices are all over the place, I have seen them advertised from £400 up to £900 each module for what appears to be the same course.
A full house however, is what most employing companies ask of their employees or they at least ask for all the domestic ACS passes. Also don't forget to factor in the lost wage time for taking courses.
Regarding paying for ACS
In the past, nearly every building company put and still do I think, money into a CITB fund to provide subsidised training in the building industry.
Formerly as the biggest company in the gas industry, BG virtually funded all of CORGI until BG became privatised and they withdrew the funding, making everybody pay.
So asking for a gas industry levy is not a new idea at all, and there is nothing stopping employees and individuals from paying in as well. In short the industry itself could provide a free method of ACS and any extra catch up training if required. And surely appliance manufactureres and gas supply companies make billions can't they pay something?
Let's be honest they would probably hardly notice it. They could use it as sponsored advertising.
Free or cheap training would raise safety standards surely, not lower them?
The idea of letting people take free ACS seems fair to me, if safety is the key factor. Not only would it break down exclusivity, but also encourage lower prices and possibly encourage potential cowboys to go on them and lets be fair the number of cowboys are probably in proportion to the cost of Plumbing/gas fitting work.
Regarding ACS, yes there are a lot of people still wanting to come into the industry, but that is probably because of those who say you can earn good money in it.
There certainly seems a lot of money to be made out of training people, is that why so many training agencies run programs and don't they have to promote the industry as a potential high earnings field, to get people to go on their courses?
The often quoted £60,000 a year works out at only £30ph, the prices some self employed people charge for gas work would seem to support that?
Some ask £75ph for gas work, that works out at £156,000 a year. So if people are no good at football they will try gas work instead.
Lets be honest, working for £7ph or less minimum wage and then being told you can earn £30 - £80ph self employed after a short training period doesn't exactly discourage people.
The other point to consider, is what if a person invests £6,000 to get qualified on a short course. Wouldn't they want to start out as soon as possible, earning as much as they can get, to pay back the loan?
Making the training cheap or free, could remove that pressure and possibly bring prices down to a reasonable level. This would also allow the million or so teenagers out of work access to a trade. Not that you would get a million applying probably.
As you say regarding knowledge.
Gas fitting and Plumbing are part of Plumbing, but ACS testing for gas safety is not Plumbing knowledge. If I remember right its just really for plumbers who fit boilers as part of their Plumbing job.
In my own case, as an employed Plumber I was told I required them and to go and get them or stop work. I was required to do so of course.
I would agree you should be tested on all aspects of Plumbing, before setting up as a Plumber. But don't make it very difficult to become a Plumber.
The JIB grade their members according to supported track record ability. Its usually a minimum of 6 years all round experience to get an Approved grade and 11 years to get a Technician. Then its not automatic, the evidence has to go before a panel of judges composed of union representatives and employers who decide whether its good enough or not.
In practice it means anybody below Approved grade has to have their work checked and signed off by an Approved Plumber as acceptable. An Approved Plumber and other grades are required to be able to do all that the grade says they should be able to, with an employer able to sack them if they can't. In short if your work is sub standard or you can't do what your grade card says you can, a company can sack you no problem.
It was a scheme intended to stop the new Plumber just out of apprentice getting the same money as Plumbers with long experience, this was not seen as fair.
As you can imagine, the same is happening now in the industry but there is no control over self employed Plumbers/gas fitters. You get what you get. Perhaps the consumer, like the employer, is entitled to know what their workman is capable of and what their experience is, and what they can do if they don't meet the requirements?
Hospitals and schools have to publish this kind of information, why not companies?
Perhaps some kind of Plumbing licence should be introduced, once again free training should be avaliable. But people only allowed to practice in the areas they had the relevent licence level for.
The thing is, if the lead in time to becoming a Plumber/ gas fitter, licenced to work self employed was so many years, that would probably act as a brake on the industry recruitment right away, and possibly only those who genuinly wanted to set up on their own in the industry would keep at it.
At the moment, short courses seem to be the only quick route to a reasonable or good living wage for most people now out of work. Mind you if it was disc jockying or some other industry everybody would probably go for that instead.
Its more a matter of access.
Thanks for the chat Tackleburger, always good to hear a different point of view
