Years ago shortly before the reduction of FIT payments I did a C&G course on installing PV.  I received the course for free and at that it was not value for money. The lecturer thought that copper reduced in resistance when it got hot! The final exam could not be failed as if you got an answer wrong you tried again. All the attendees got one particular answer wrong until we pointed out that the answer we had all given was as per the course and supporting materials. The lecturer decided the "correct" answer was wrong and passed us all. 

Could I wire up a PV system following the course? Yes but I could do so before the course. Was I more competent and safer following the course ?No. 

If the course was an example of the level of training that we receive to install PV it is no surprise that there are poor installs. 

Years ago shortly before the reduction of FIT payments I did a C&G course on installing PV.  I received the course for free and at that it was not value for money. The lecturer thought that copper reduced in resistance when it got hot! The final exam could not be failed as if you got an answer wrong you tried again. All the attendees got one particular answer wrong until we pointed out that the answer we had all given was as per the course and supporting materials. The lecturer decided the "correct" answer was wrong and passed us all. 

Could I wire up a PV system following the course? Yes but I could do so before the course. Was I more competent and safer following the course ?No. 

If the course was an example of the level of training that we receive to install PV it is no surprise that there are poor installs. 

Could I wire up a PV system following the course? Yes but I could do so before the course. Was I more competent and safer following the course ?No. 

If the course was an example of the level of training that we receive to install PV it is no surprise that there are poor installs. 

That is my experience too with the C&G EV course. I paid £354, expecting to learn something. It was a dire course, which, as you say, no one could fail. There certainly were people who should not have passed on my course, for example, the design part, which should have been done individually, was done as a group of 4, with little input from some, mainly due to their lack of understanding of the regs, but now they have the Certificate, and can be let loose on the public to install EV chargers.

Well said Alan - its this fashion today - started with the concept of dumbing down - that no one is judged as substandard.  Every one's a winner, nobody fails.

Perhaps someone will remind us here of the Political rush (10 + years ago) to coerce all Lecccies to take CnG course to become "Certified Competent Persons"  with the attraction being that this will disable all the cowboys from undercutting legitimate tradesmen who wish to offer professional services.  I remember there was a big fuss, because the Trade bodies ( set up by Gov Minister encouragement) and the Training purveyors were out to make a killing with course fees and subscriptions. Tales of woe abounded, with Tradesmen having to pay out £000's in fees and subs, only to find that the Gov did not follow through with legislation to ensure that only registered competent persons may offer electrician services.  The whole exercise became a huge damp squib and left thousands who had signed up for this accreditation without work as there was still nothing to stop Hairdressers" becomes "Leccies" overnight.  This is still the practice today AFAIK

Contrast this with the Gas Industry, where

It is illegal for someone who is not Gas Safe registered to fit a gas appliance or do other gas work
and then have the work checked by a Gas Safe registered engineer. Both parties would be breaking
the law

I appreciate the sentiment, but not quite, so to be accurate.

see The actual law for England and wales

"(1)No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.

(2) The employer of any person carrying out such work for that employer, every other employer and self-employed person who has control to any extent of such work and every employer and self-employed person who has required such work to be carried out at any place of work under his control shall ensure that paragraph (1) above is complied with in relation to such work.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (1) and (2) above and subject to paragraph (4) below, no employer shall allow any of his employees to carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or service pipework and no self-employed person shall carry out any such work, unless the employer or self-employed person, as the case may be, is a member of a class of persons approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive 

So

1) To be incompetent and work on gas is illegal.

And

2) No one shall offer themselves as an employee or employ someone to work on to work on gas unless at least one of them is a member of ( in effect Gas Safe)

There are a couple of points there -
1) An individual must be personally registered (employer or employee as applicable), and

2) It says nothing about folk who are neither employers nor employees.

Implying it is not exactly illegal under that act for example to fit your own gas fittings in your own caravan or something, but you must be competent to do so, which may be hard to demonstrate after something has gone wrong and come to the attention of the authorities,  but you certainly cannot do so by way of business without Gas Safe registration.

Amusingly the last survey I saw suggested these rules are also not observed everywhere either, and about 1/3 of things like boilers and cookers sold seem to install themselves magically without any sort of registration with the authorities ever occurring.

In slow time I'll see if I can find a link to that report.

I'm not sure it is a regulation model we should try to emulate.

Mike.