mcs accreditation

[andybeach]

I recently did a c&g pv course and have the chance to do a couple of installations. Can anyone advise on what gaining mcs accreditation involves and who is it best to go with?

 

[andybeach]

Sorry I hadn't seen the other discussions on this when I asked the question. While I'm here though I would still like to hear from any sole traders or small companies on how the found the accreditation process.

 

[Worcester]

Andy,

Before you embark on it you'll need to understand the total cost of the investment that you'll make. Taking into account the training, the QMS, the cost of your time, the cash flow, the number of quotes you'll need to do, the additonal insurances, the books etc you should budget for £20k to get your MCS certification.

The process is not difficult, it is however time consuming. I have already helped four local companies get their MCS and am currently helping the fifth, they are all astonished at just how much time and effort they have to put into it , and the on-going time and effort required for each job.

Why am I helping other local companies / individuals that could be conceived as my competitors? - I have an attitiude of plenty, renewables is our core business from Ground Source to Solar PV and everything in between, for most of them it's an additional string to their bow, and it gives me a well trained resource that I can call on when we get tight on resources!

Just check out all the other threads on this - there is a wealth of advice available already detailed in this forum.

 

[Harry Worth]

Crikey! - £20,000 to get your accreditation. Can you please give a rough breakdown of that figure. I was hoping to go down that road myself.

 

[andybeach]

Thanks Worcester,

My problem is I have a couple of jobs offered from family and friends ( one of them is a big job ), but of course they all want it finishing before they FIT is reduced next March. And they hope it will cost them less if I do it for them.

I've got the technical knowledge and have even done a bit of roofing in the past, but as someone who hates sitting in an office I'm not looking forward to the hours spent on the quality system, etc..

Obviously I won't make the 20k you quote just on the first couple of jobs.

 

[Worcester]

@ Harry Worth Have a quick trawl through the threads here and you'll find a complete breakdown from quite a few people as to how it works out. Everyone one way or another comes out at a similar figure.

 

[Worcester]

Thanks Worcester,

My problem is I have a couple of jobs offered from family and friends ( one of them is a big job ), but of course they all want it finishing before they FIT is reduced next March. And they hope it will cost them less if I do it for them.

I've got the technical knowledge and have even done a bit of roofing in the past, but as someone who hates sitting in an office I'm not looking forward to the hours spent on the quality system, etc..

Obviously I won't make the 20k you quote just on the first couple of jobs.

Why not find a local installer and offer yourself as part labourer for the job? You'll need more that just yourself anyway, because you'll be going to the installer with 'pre-sold' systems, they should be able to do them with you for cost plus as they won't have any marketing or sales costs to recover. Try a local member of UK Solar Installers.co.uk

 

[yellowvanman]

@ Harry Worth Have a quick trawl through the threads here and you'll find a complete breakdown from quite a few people as to how it works out. Everyone one way or another comes out at a similar figure.

I can honestly say it didn't cost me that much. Ok I did work a few evenings to get the QMS up and running and I did a 'budget' install for my assessment. In terms of paying out real money it cost me about £4K-£5K.

 

[Worcester]

@Yellowvanman you need to add the opportunity cost into your calculations, attending a £500 training course lasting 5 days, when as a reasonably good sparks, you might earn say £300 for that day, has cost £2000.

Now costy your time of 'a few evenings' properly and I bet you've added a nother few grand. All of these are real costs.

I also bet you didn't cost your time on doing your own install did you?

That is why so many small business / self employed people don't make as much money as they think they do after they've taking into account the proper costs.

It the same when you go on holiday, - bet you think about it then, - it's not just the cost of the holiday, you're away for 1 - 2 weeks and not getting paid, that's the REAL cost.

 

[yellowvanman]

@Yellowvanman you need to add the opportunity cost into your calculations, attending a £500 training course lasting 5 days, when as a reasonably good sparks, you might earn say £300 for that day, has cost £2000.

I bet a lot of guys wish they could earn £300 a day doing sparkying work!

I'm not disagreeing with you, thats why I did say in terms of spending real money I spent around £4K-£5K.

 

[andybeach]

Thanks Yellowvanman / Worcester
Did you find the initial time and money were worth while? I,ve already done a trainning course, but that didn't deal with the accreditaion side.

Anglesey where I live is supposed to be the poorest county in the UK, so £300 per day is a bit of a dream at the moment,lol.

Did you use one of these companies offering that take you through the accreditation process, or did you design you're own QS etc?

I've got a week or so to decide what to do, thanks again to you all for the info.

 

[yellowvanman]

I used a 3rd party process to get accreditation, would take a lot longer to do it from scratch!

 

[Worcester]

Bit of both, in one of my other businesses, a co-director is an ISO9000 auditor, so we took a framework and then tailored it to make it work.

In retrospect it may have been easier / cheaper to have gone the Easy MCS route, however by thoroughly going through each part of the process, we don't even have to think about what's needed, as we 'owned' the process.

Having now helped four other local companies get their MCS (I believe in a world of plenty, and I now have additonal resources to call on when we need them ), I'd recommend going along a route like Easy MCS, it will cost less, though it will take a while for you to learn their system until it becomes yours.