Statement sent to NASC
Dear Mr Mosley,
Thank-you for your quick reply.
I will be happy to talk to you on the phone but feel the need to comply the following statement & would welcome your reply prior to a phone conversation.
I am an Advanced Scaffolder under your scheme, my personal experience is as follows, I gained my card through the assessed route of entry. After being in the industry for about 15 years companies were starting to ask for them. I remember when I first heard about them, back then they were CITB tickets. My boss offered me the chance to go for a CITB ticket or HGV. I went for the HGV & that has got me more work over the years than the CITB ticket could have. A Scaffolder who can drive a class 1!!! I have worked for many Scaffold firms & undertaken all types of work other than offshore. I am very experienced & top of my game as some would say!!
Now you know me.
The forum I represent has posted the following & would like a response.
Regards ECITB tickets & score card tickets that have the CITB stamp on them.
1/ Why can’t the CISRS arrange a days assessment for the above who have 5 years experience & above?
2/ Why should someone with a level 6 ECITB card with years of experience need to do 2 weeks part 1 course with people that only need 6 months experience? They should be assessed at the level they are now on!!
3/ If you can get testaments from 3 major companies that you have worked for at the level you are currently working at then the ECITB should be transferred to the equivalent CISRS card. Or in a number of years when someone decides that the CISRS card is not good enough do we go through this again?
4/ As I understand it’s the NVQ that is needed to get CISRS cards, so why do we need to do the 2 weeks training course as this is nothing to do with the NVQ? Why can’t we just do the portfolio on site & send it away?
5/ Would like to say if it isn’t a money spinner like the CSCS & ECITB CCSNG which is still recognised even though its ECITB why can’t ECITB scaffolders have the course for free, is it because all the firms & scaffolders that have paid for it YTS CISRS would want their money back! Forget the training what about experience, lets move forward with this ECITB issue wake up NASC you’ll get your own way next year as ECITB will be dead after 25 years plus!!
6/ How can you not include ECITB scaffolders who are highly trained & ticketed inline with many job related codes of practice, CCSNG, IPAF, PASMA, PTS, confined space & SG4.05 as well as many years of recorded industry experience all in line with the NVQ!!
7/ Its an insult that the NASC expect experienced scaffolders to join the CISRS system at trainee level attending a course which is tailored made for candidates with six months experience?
8/ Why can’t ECITB ticket holders with 5years or more be exempt from the part 1 & part 2 & be awarded the NVQ based on portfolios & assessment in the same way as part 2 thus entering the CISRS at an appropriate level.
9/ Why is it that the NASC & the CISRS is not one company & why wasn’t ECITB merged into CISRS when the training was removed from the CITB?
10/ Why is it that the ECITB ticket is not being recognised when it should be? It runs out December 2010, no firm will touch it now. Also most sites want the labourer to have CISRS, what the CSCS for?? How do you get 6 months experience to get CISRS!!!!!!!!
11/ Almost hate to mention it but is there any chance of mentioning SCORE cards. I don't know if you have come across them or if it is just a Scottish thing but there is loads of lads up here with them and they have citb stamped all over them but main contractors stopped accepting them with the same consequences as the ecitb cards. Why???
12/ New Qualifications Strategy
Vocational Qualifications Reform Programme
To support the recommendations of the Leitch Report upon future skills needs, a government coordinated programme of qualifications reform is currently under way. This programme aims to establish a simplified structure of qualifications that reflect the skills and knowledge that employers value. Emerging qualifications will be based upon the expressed needs of employers within each sector of the UK economy. These needs have been collated through a consultative process led by the various sector bodies concerned, including ECITB.
To provide a foundation for more flexible qualifications, a national credit based framework will progressively be introduced by 2010. This framework will be populated with units with defined levels and credit values, which can be combined into the qualifications that meet employer needs. The units will only be accepted into the framework if the related qualifications are derived from published Qualifications Strategies. Furthermore, central funding will only be available for qualifications that consist of units included within the framework, and that therefore clearly stem from employer needs.
Requirements of a Qualifications Strategy
The key requirements of a Qualifications Strategy are that it must:
•Provide a strategic vision of the future qualifications landscape required by employers within a sector of the UK economy
•Define priorities for the development of new qualifications and National Occupational Standards
•Be developed through substantial employer consultations
•Meet defined quality standards, including having a separate focus upon each of the four nations.
The Qualifications Strategy may well address such strategic aims as for example to:
•Enhance the image of the industry and its ability to recruit suitable new entrants
•Increase the volume of training within the industry
•Develop the skills and competence of key employee groups
•Increase the level of take up and/or completion rate of qualifications
•Increase the relevance and flexibility of available qualifications
•Support coherent career pathways
•Align UK, EU and overseas qualifications.
To me that ticks all the boxes, End of problem, NVQs2 and 3 as awarded= Equals CISRS Scaffolder or CISRS Advanced.
So why are the ECITB,CISRS,CSCS and NASC not in consultation, stating the ECITB guys have a 'Right to not be refused' a CISRS card, when Portfolios and ECITB cards are and can readily be supplied by some of this country's most qualified scaffolders.
To sum up
20,000 plus scaffolders in the Industry 15% may be affected 3,000 men.
You have already put people out of work!!
Even if one man is affected its worth looking at let alone up to 3,000!!!!!!!!!
The issue of the poor training methods developed by the CISRS is the main topic for the meeting in October with the HSE & your detailed comments to this statement will be a major talking point in it.
I will forward you a date & full agenda nearer the time.
Regards S.Quinney
Ragscaff
Scaffolders Confederation for Consultation Rights
