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Tell me what you think of this guys...
i undertook a health and safety course in order to obtain an ECS card which as you may know is needed by many building sites these days. I got 98%. I sent off for my card the other day and paid the £36 or so for it.
Now i am the director of an electrical contracting firm, i have City and Guilds 2360 parts 1 and 2 in which i got distinctions, City and guilds 2391, 16th edition regs and 17th edtion regs, and i am also the NICEIC priciple duty holder and qualifying supervisor and have been so ever since we were accepted as a fully approved comapny by the NICEIC some ten years ago.
i put all this information on the ECS card application form.
today a got the card and guess what.. it has 'trainee' on it!!
obviously i contact the JIB and told them that there must be some mistake. the lady on the end of the phone asked about my qualifications which i listed. she said do you have an NVQ level 3 to which i replied no as when i did my City and guilds courses NVQ did not exist and had not even been though of. she said, well that why then. if you havent got that then in our vieww you are not more than a trainee. i said, but ive been an NICEIC QS for over ten years! they do not seem to have a problem with it and they inspect me personally every year. she said it makes no difference as we dont recognise the criterior for an NICEIC QS.
when i askes about getting the qualification she gave me some nuumbers, which i called. the cost of this course which turns out is a practicle course is nigh on £900.
i then rang the NICEIC and spoke to one of their operatives on the reception call centre. i explained the situation and said i would liek to speak to someone who could help. in his wisdom he put me through to the NICEIC ID card printing dept who were somewhat bemused as to why they had been put forward as a possible help. i then called the receptionist back and asked to speak to a manager. he put me on hold and then told me that he had spoken to a manager and that the advice was that if i needed the card with something other than Trainee on it then i should do the NVQ course.
i pointed out that the EAS committee management had recently come to an agreement whereby a new QS for a body such as the NICEIC applying for the post after 1 Jan 2012 would need the NVQ but that any QS's already in the role before this date woul dnot need it. on this basis the NICEIC either considered that i was indeed qualified to this level seeing as i have been inspected many time before on my workmanship or that if this was not the case then the NICEIC were happy to have QS's who were appointed before 1 jan 2012 who in the eyes of the JIB were no more than Trainees!! what is more is that we were recommended to do the electrical work because we are NICEIC approved and i now cannot get on to the site as the most senior person running the firm is only a Trainee. The NICEIC's reaction was 'you must take this up with the JIB as they are nothing to do with us'.
now for the question...
is it me or are all these electrical bodies not talking to each other? Why cant there be a standard that sparks can be judged by based on when they did their exams and what exams were available to them at the time? are they just interested in the next few hundred quid from the sparks that they have on their books? how can this be right that someone in my position and others the same cannot get an proper ECS card because the JIB (who have a monopoly on the ECS system)dont recognise City and Guilds qualifiactions anymore and i havent done an NVQ course that was brought in 5 years or more after a became qualified?
i cannot now do the work that i am being asked to do!! its so bloody anoying. this falls in with the shambles that is Part P.
i undertook a health and safety course in order to obtain an ECS card which as you may know is needed by many building sites these days. I got 98%. I sent off for my card the other day and paid the £36 or so for it.
Now i am the director of an electrical contracting firm, i have City and Guilds 2360 parts 1 and 2 in which i got distinctions, City and guilds 2391, 16th edition regs and 17th edtion regs, and i am also the NICEIC priciple duty holder and qualifying supervisor and have been so ever since we were accepted as a fully approved comapny by the NICEIC some ten years ago.
i put all this information on the ECS card application form.
today a got the card and guess what.. it has 'trainee' on it!!
obviously i contact the JIB and told them that there must be some mistake. the lady on the end of the phone asked about my qualifications which i listed. she said do you have an NVQ level 3 to which i replied no as when i did my City and guilds courses NVQ did not exist and had not even been though of. she said, well that why then. if you havent got that then in our vieww you are not more than a trainee. i said, but ive been an NICEIC QS for over ten years! they do not seem to have a problem with it and they inspect me personally every year. she said it makes no difference as we dont recognise the criterior for an NICEIC QS.
when i askes about getting the qualification she gave me some nuumbers, which i called. the cost of this course which turns out is a practicle course is nigh on £900.
i then rang the NICEIC and spoke to one of their operatives on the reception call centre. i explained the situation and said i would liek to speak to someone who could help. in his wisdom he put me through to the NICEIC ID card printing dept who were somewhat bemused as to why they had been put forward as a possible help. i then called the receptionist back and asked to speak to a manager. he put me on hold and then told me that he had spoken to a manager and that the advice was that if i needed the card with something other than Trainee on it then i should do the NVQ course.
i pointed out that the EAS committee management had recently come to an agreement whereby a new QS for a body such as the NICEIC applying for the post after 1 Jan 2012 would need the NVQ but that any QS's already in the role before this date woul dnot need it. on this basis the NICEIC either considered that i was indeed qualified to this level seeing as i have been inspected many time before on my workmanship or that if this was not the case then the NICEIC were happy to have QS's who were appointed before 1 jan 2012 who in the eyes of the JIB were no more than Trainees!! what is more is that we were recommended to do the electrical work because we are NICEIC approved and i now cannot get on to the site as the most senior person running the firm is only a Trainee. The NICEIC's reaction was 'you must take this up with the JIB as they are nothing to do with us'.
now for the question...
is it me or are all these electrical bodies not talking to each other? Why cant there be a standard that sparks can be judged by based on when they did their exams and what exams were available to them at the time? are they just interested in the next few hundred quid from the sparks that they have on their books? how can this be right that someone in my position and others the same cannot get an proper ECS card because the JIB (who have a monopoly on the ECS system)dont recognise City and Guilds qualifiactions anymore and i havent done an NVQ course that was brought in 5 years or more after a became qualified?
i cannot now do the work that i am being asked to do!! its so bloody anoying. this falls in with the shambles that is Part P.
