Mel Hobbs of ADCAS highlights a major problem faced by the ductwork industry - and has a solution.
With the whole UK economy in trouble, it may seem ingenuous to speak of a crisis in the ductwork industry. After all, crisis has become the order of the day.
And yet, if each sector of industry could solve its own individual problems, the whole fabric would soon be repaired.
For once, this is not a financial problem - yet. It's a lack - not of funds but of training by companies to produce skilled personnel. There simply will not be enough skilled and qualified ductwork operatives to meet future demand when an upturn occurs.
Consequently, ADCAS has been working with colleges, training providers and, of course, organisations like SummitSkills to create a path to career qualification with a starting point for everyone from the first day apprentice, to the operative who has already notched up 20 years' experience.
Final piece
The final piece of the jigsaw is now in place with the setting up of the first college-based NVQ L3 Course in ductwork at Bexley College. Organised in conjunction with SummitSkills and Bexley College, the course is the first of its kind in England to provide day-release students with a college-based NVQ L3 syllabus in this specialist subject.
The new course will qualify as an Advanced Apprenticeship under the conditions of the scheme administered by the National Youth Agency to give 16- to 24-year-olds earn-while-you-learn training.
Bexley in Kent is one of only three colleges in the UK to offer ductwork training - and now the only one in England to offer a classroom setting for NVQ L3 studies.
Bexley will also continue to offer an Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) course to this level for experienced workers who normally work through a fast-track programme with work-based assessment. To qualify for the new course, students will have already completed a basic apprenticeship/NVQ L2 in Ductwork.
No excuse
Ductwork specialists now have no excuse for not providing proper training. Training has transformed from being an option to becoming a necessity. Now, just having the skills is not enough - you have to prove you have them.
The introduction and enforcement of SkillCards qualifications is now beginning to bite, and the impact on our industry will be significant. While managers can still rely on existing qualifications (or the endorsement of two directors) installers and craftsmen need NVQs to obtain an operative's card.
So, soon, it will be no qualifications, no card. No card, no entry to site. And, even if you have a fully qualified on-site team today, the same may not be true tomorrow.
The academic barriers to college entrance have been raised and the alternative way in, via KeySkills, is not popular with young people. Apprentices and trainees are hard to find. But without them there is no future. The infrastructure is now in place to produce new generations of fully qualified ductwork operatives. ADCAS encourages companies to put training where it belongs - at the top of the agenda.
The author is operations co-ordinator at Hotchkiss