I deal with the dismantling of vehicles and I am the designated "competent person" under the regulations designed to deal with "waste" sites such as my own. I now need, apparently, to keep renewing this registration every couple of years – which must be with a private external organisation at significant cost – to do a job that we have, as a family, been doing for 45 years, and which, frankly, we know more about than the training assessors. Regulations should not be moving so quickly or so dramatically that retraining is necessary at these sort of intervals. Indeed, there is something not right about placing an expiry date on a formal qualification that many have worked to achieve in the first place – such as an HGV licence
I am informed that this ongoing qualification is equivalent to 4 modules of an NVQ. This is heartening, and will look very impressive next to my 14 O Levels, 4 A Levels, MA and PhD (and yes, I do really have these!). Who on earth thinks that I need to attend a course every three years in order to know what numbers I need to put on a waste transfer note? Cannot my existing qualification score?
Worse, I am not aware that the EA inspectors demanding this are subject to a continuous assessment themselves. Nor are our MPs subject to one, and frankly, if anyone needs to be competent…….
This is both insulting to those who have been doing their jobs for years, as well as being prohibitively expensive. It is also creating a workforce that is immobile, as we are beginning to need certificates and qualifications to do any job, restricting the ability to move between work areas dramatically. This cannot be good for the economy.