Practical Training and Qualifications

Practical Training

In the UK there are a number of possible ways that you can get practical skills training and qualification assessments, for example: Further Education Colleges, Private Training Providers, Manufacturers Training Courses, Working in the Industry, and Personal Development i.e. developing one’s existing skills over time.

There are also a number of qualifications that can be achieved too, however note that not all are designed to enable a person to prove their competency. Also, in the case of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) most of the evidence of a person’s competence must be provided from real work, done in the workplace, to the correct standards, for a customer, and only a small proportion of the evidence of competence can be provided by simulation in a workshop situation. This is not the case with ‘certificate’ type qualifications where all the assessment is carried out by simulations in a workshop environment.

 

Further Education Colleges

You could enrol on a further education college course for both training and assessment. However most UK colleges, it seems, often have long waiting lists and tend not to cater for people’s individual needs both in terms of speed of learning and making allowance for previous experience or transferable skills. Consequently they tend to tell people that it will take 3 or 4 years to achieve a level 3 NVQ regardless of their previous experience and willingness to study even though this need not be the case. FE colleges also tend to have rigid attendance patterns that often do not fit in with a mature learner’s other commitments. Also, there can sometimes be shortages of tools and consumable materials, such as copper pipe and fittings, due to lack of funds. On the plus side though; an accredited FE college will have usually have a good range of facilities, and both these and the staff will have been vetted by the qualification awarding body (City & Guilds of London Institute) to try to ensure that standards of assessment are being met. The teaching staff should also be well qualified in their plumbing skills and they will often have a teaching and assessment qualification, furthermore, their teaching will be vetted by the Adult Learning Inspectorate from time to time too.

 

Private Training Providers

There are many different types of private training providers. Some will be of the highest standard and be accredited by City & Guilds to offer both certificated qualifications and NVQ competency based qualifications. At the other extreme, some are not accredited by C&G at all and offer a generalised ‘fast track’ plumbing course without any assessment towards a qualification. Some will offer only very specialized training, either with or without a qualification at the end. For example: unvented domestic hot water storage systems installation, central heating control systems, combination boiler repair and faultfinding.

One thing that all private training providers should all have in common is that the training will be quite intense and over a relatively short period, (because time is money to them). Note: if the private training provider advertises that their courses enable you to achieve a qualification take care to check with the awarding body (C&G) that the training provider has accreditation for the qualification and that the accreditation is not suspended or withdrawn before paying for the course!

 

Manufacturers Training Courses

Many manufacturers of plumbing and heating components offer specialised training covering their products. For example: boilers, showers, central heating controls, piping and fittings are just a few of the courses available. The training is often free, and if not free then only a small charge is usually made to try to ensure that people who book onto the courses actually turn up on the day. Occasionally the ‘training’ will actually be more of a sales pitch designed to familiarise people with the perceived benefits of the product, but usually the training will be top quality and delivered by a person who has expert knowledge of the company’s product.