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Re: EEE Safe Certification
just to say thanks to all that have contacted Graham I know he appreciates it,and hopefully something that we all want will come to fruition i.e credibility …
Re: EEE Safe Certification
Just had an email reply from Graham to say he was not sucessful in obtaining support and funding :rolls:
But why I am I not suprised at that, I hate all these Quangos they are ony in it for their own means and gains:!:
You only have to read the financial reports to see why the money never gets to those who actually need it.
Too much is wasted on directors and who do very little.
I am sure Grahams back up plan is well in progress and we will hear soon enough. 😉My opinion would be to say, dont waste any more time just waiting (but keep fighting for funding through any chanel possible),in the mean time we just get together and just do it ourselves, after all we have the technology, the knowledge and expertese and we have numbers if we include the other TA’s.
EEESafe Competent Persons Scheme up-date…………..
As you and many others in the industry showed your support for the idea of a ‘Competent Persons Scheme’ we call ‘EEESafe’ by showing your support I thought it only fair to let you know the outcome of the bid for funding we were seeking for a pilot project.
Although a decision was to be made by late August, then mid September and then late October the decision was finally announced on the 23rd November – I say announced as they yet they have not bothered to let us know directly – we only found out when checking their website for other issues.
So sadly even with the extensive support we received from the industry at all levels funding has not been successful in this particular instance.
Those that know me personally will realise that I have never really had any faith in ‘Civil Servant’ being capable of understanding anything but their own inflated salaries and how to gain even larger guaranteed pension provision despite rarely if ever doing the jobs they are paid for.
With this in mind there has always been alternative options for just such a knock back situation as this and details of these contained in this email.
I don’t want to burden you with too much ‘Quango’ babble but it may just help in understanding the current situation a little better and what opportunities it may provide.
It may also help if you take a quick look at the following information which was issued on the UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills) website 24th November.
Quite simply it means that decision on the bid for EEEsafe funding we had been waiting since August for has been unsuccessful despite the support it had from across our trade sectors – the reason for this appears to be because SummitSkills has failed in all its funding bids including the Apprenticeship qualification that HEEST has been working on with them for over two years.
To put it bluntly I think what HEEST (Household Electrical & Electronic Service Training) has been working towards over the past couple of years or so could be ‘dead in the water’ – or at least delayed even further than it already has been.
However, the NOS (National Occupational Standards) should still be available but with this news I am not at all sure at present who or what department will take control over them.
For obvious reasons the EEESafe bid that was put forward for funding relied on using aspects of the ‘New’ Apprenticeship Qualification as part of its content structure with the aim of allowing it to be available to ‘All’ in the industry (including recycling) not just those entering into it as apprentices (which few in the whitegoods service sector employ anyway).
A positive note is that as mentioned previously being the pessimist many think I am (I like to think it as being more of a realist myself) when it comes to expecting Civil Servants to actually do the job we pay them for made us realise that we always needed an EEESafe plan ‘B’ (and in fact several others) ready for just this occurrence.
I have already made Terry Tudor chairman of the HEEST group aware of this funding news (if he did not know already) as I believe that it will be a major talking point at their next meeting.
For my part I think that the next course of action is to endeavour to further the EEESafe project using plan ‘B’ which I am pleased to say we may have already secured alternative funding for a pilot project to be run in Wales.
If successful it could pave the way for it to be rolled out nationally utilising alternative funding streams the details of which can be found later in this email. The main being ‘The Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF)’ via Skills Academies bid which if need be the WTA and/or DASA could bid for as Trade Associations under the new initiatives released last Friday plus two others which are of interest (see below).
If as I believe waiting for SummitSkills to develop the Apprenticeship for us has become somewhat of a non-starter we all need to consider the above after viewing and considering the details contained in the following links.
At first it may appear to be rather disappointing to say the least to all those who would like to see some form of recognition for the skills they have but all is far from lost.
The ‘Browngoods’ service sector has other existing qualifications to fall back upon where as we in the Whitegoods sector are once again left with essentially nothing unless we take this knock back as a positive as opposed to a negative and for once decide to take control of the future of this sector instead of relying/hoping others will do it for us.
Although this news is at present confusing we all need to do our best to work out just what implications it really has and how best to use what is now available to the benefit of the service (and recycling) sectors.
To gain an understanding of what has happened I suggest that you follow the kinks below and read the sections listed which I think are relevant –
UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Then go to the News Icon tab at the top of the page – from there you need to refine your search criteria by date to the following information articles dated 25th/23rd/17th November which are currently all stacked on top of each other and are as follows –
25th November 2011
http://www.ukces.org.uk/news/Press-releases/2011/eif2
UKCES Employer Investment Fund 2 – Decision not to fund SummitSkills (which includes our bid for funding EEESafe and the HEEST groups ‘Apprenticeship QCF’
The announcement although not specific by name seems to imply that the bids submitted for funding for our white goods industry qualifications or Competent Persons Scheme by SummitSkills were not successful.
As a sector we now urgently need to ask for feedback and a way forward via alternative funding to support our skills and training needs now and for the future.
Looking at this site UKCES there are still two potential streams to possibly help our sector that we need to explore http://www.ukces.org.uk/news/Articles/2 … -announced
1. Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) which was opened on the 23rd November 2011 this has a £28 million for all industry to access. I am not an expert and here is where we need to call in some support as a group, the fund states that applications can be recieved from Sector Skills Councils/ National Skills Academies, Trade associations.
We are considering contacting the National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies to enquire if as an alliance of trade associations and EEESafe would it be possible to access funding for our sector from GIF?
2. Vince Cable launced on 17th November 2011 a £250 million fund to give employers power over skills training. http://www.ukces.org.uk/news/Articles/2 … -announced
As I understand it the purpose of the fund would possibly allow us to design, develop and/or purchase vocational training and have it under control and run by those in whitegoods Sector.
I am sure this could only occur if as an important industry we could show agreement across the whole of our industry for a competence based scheme and I get the feeling that waiting for SummitSkills to develop the Apprenticeship QCF or assist in developing a Competent Person Scheme for us has become somewhat of a non-starter.
Once we have agreement say between WTA, DASA and EEESafe the way forward may be to start talks with the National Skills Academy. If they are unable to help we could then ask the UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills) to advise us on which SSC (Sector Skills Council) should take us forward.
Let me know your views after reading the above.
Kind regards,
Graham
Dixon Training & Consultancy
PS
As I finished this email I have just received the latest information about the new – Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF) which is already at the phase 2 stage with phase 1 only being announced late last week – the interesting part in this announcement is in the second to last paragraph – Geoff Russell, Chief Executive of the Skills Funding Agency said:
“We look forward to working with employers and their representative organisations to find innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle skills gaps in their sectors.The Growth and Innovation Fund will secure a greater commitment from employers to invest in the skills they need, so creating jobs and Apprenticeships, driving enterprise and increasing their overall productivity in support of the growth agenda.”
Seems to tick quite a few of the boxes we need to develop a Competent Persons Scheme for our industry sector.
The link to the is – http://skillsfundingagency.bis.gov.uk/n … se-Two.htmRe: EEE Safe Certification
Steven wrote:Just had an email reply from Graham to say he was not sucessful in obtaining support and funding :rolls:
I breath a sigh of relief at hearing that news. I cannot believe that anyone would welcome regulation or are even truly aware of what damage regulation would do to the service industry. Once legislation is put in place then all manner of rules and regs follow month after month, year in year out. The cost all the while spiralling out of control.
I fully understand the motives of those that can see a way of capitalising on policing such a system. Licence to print money out of a trade already struggling to make any, brilliant plan sooty….but I’M OUT..!!
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