Shush David, I have only a year to go before retirement after more than 30 years as a part-time tutor. If you are letting cats out of the sack, can you delay to next year please?

Certainly Lyle, you can safely bet that the recent Government turmoil will stop anything happening for several years. However if we get a new "proper" Government then things may happen quite fast, I would certainly hope so. Thanks for supporting my points BTW. I wonder if you know a guy called Tom I've forgotten his surname), who taught 2391 at Newtownards college? Retired now I'm sure, but certainly believed in the "old school" value of learning, kind regards if he is looking.

The Cat is quite a way out of the bag Lyle, look at the Grenfell Inquiry and you will observe it displayed for all to see. It appears that there is zero competence anywhere, in anyone involved. A lot of people may well be trying to push the Cat back in! There are even entirely FAKE qualifications to be seen!

I fear it is partly because it dumbs down the role of managers and supervisors.
We have transitioned over time from the role being able to look over someone's shoulder and say 'oy I do not like that - I wanted X' which needs a manager who has 'come up from the ranks'  , to  the modern sort of desk pilot manager.

This first sort needs someone who understands at least to some degree what he or she is managing and could step in and do some of the job themselves, at least in principle
The modern case  only requires, and  perhaps tends to be, one who has an MBA or something and believes  he or she can manage anything from a chemical factory to a chicken farm to a booze up in a brewery with equal panache, when in fact their lack of domain knowledge means they cannot do any of them very well. But almost anyone can look at certificate numbers and see if they match someone else's list of 'proper' qualifications.
I am biassed of course, as  I very much like to look over other folks work and say 'well, I would /would not..' but then at least in part I am paid to do exactly that.

Mike.

No, it means that the advice you got 15 years ago would have been that you completed the technical qualification and then complete the NVQ and AM2, both of which have been about for a far greater time than 15 years. You either misunderstood the advice, were not given it or chose to ignore it at the time due to the cost, regardless it is a requirement that you become qualified to the correct level.

It was a Tuesday evening in September 2019 I had the NVQ conversation with the Head of Department, he said I would reach retirement age before it was likely to become an issue and twenty three years later it turns out he was right.

Some of the the two billion pounds of training funds returned to the Treasury could have been used to upskill the UK workforce,  however the only training grants I recieved as a self employed electrician came from the European Union and that is no longer possible. 

engx.theiet.org/.../2bn-unused-apprentice-funds-since-2017-let-s-use-them-for-upskilling

One of the things about an apprenticeship (or a degree course) is that it involves a degree of growing up, or "education" literally. Mature trainees do not have to go through that process and it would be a great pity if youth is prioritised over experience.

Firms I have worked for as a subcontractor have had to pay a training board levy based on what they paid me for my labour, but I am not able to access grants from those training boards for training and have to pay for it myself.

Hardly an equitable distribution of resources.