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Industry experience prevails over vocational qualifications
Croner, a UK provider of online information for health and safety and employment issues, has said that the minimum level of vocational qualifications is unlikely to lead to enhanced industry standards.
The advice follows recent persistence by other vocational qualification providers for such skilled industries such as plumbing, electrical engineering and care homes, to become licensed in order to improve standards.
According to Croner vocational qualifications do not give a full insight of employees’ or contractors’ abilities, as they do not take in to account experience or aptitude for the job, and are therefore not sufficient grounds to guarantee a standard of workmanship.
Instead Croner believes on-the-job training and industry experience, as well as structured training programmes, should be compulsory to make sure that work is carried out as professionally and safely as possible.
Nasar Farooq, health and safety technical manager at Croner said: “Employers shouldn’t be misled that an increased quota of employees with vocational qualifications, or simply increasing training spend, is the answer to improving industry standards.
“Our advice would be that while recognised qualifications, such as the City and Guilds, can only be a good thing, they should form part of a bigger picture which also includes on-the-job training and experience.” Details: www.croner.co.uk