Demolition News has today received a message from one of its readers who (like far too many others) finds himself in the unfortunate position of currently being unemployed and unable to afford to pay to maintain his demolition qualification card. Which set us thinking – Is this really fair?

The man in question – and he is NOT alone – has spent 40 years working in the demolition industry. He has worked his way up through the ranks, committed to the required training route, and has achieved Top Man status thanks in part to the backing of his employer and the grant funding available to them, but also thanks to his own hard graft and commitment over the years.

And now, through no fault of his own, he finds his beloved industry in recession and himself prematurely on the scrapheap. From a personal point of view, the man in question is now having to consider alternative forms of employment because the cost of the card renewal is beyond his current means.

But what of the cost to the industry?

This is a man with four decades of hands-on experience in an industry where experience is everything.

Can we REALLY afford to allow a man like this (and the hundreds of others like him) to take their knowledge to another or worse, to abandon it altogether?

We’d love to hear your comments on this matter. In addition, if you find yourself in this unfortunate position, don’t forget to register at www.demolition-jobs.co.uk.

Howard Button

Following a recent meeting of the Learning and Skills Council, training providers (including the National Demolition Training Group) were advised that cutbacks in funding means that it will “not be enough to support new starts on next year’s contract, and that, initially at least, we will only be offering providers an allocation to complete learners carried over from the 2008-09 contract year”.

Button believes that this will impact across the entire industry but will be felt most acutely within the demolition business. “The Demolition NVQ Level 2 has been a great success due to two factors: the hard work put in by the NDTG; and the grant funding that has been available to contractors in England,” Button asserts. “Almost 200 Demolition VQs have been achieved by the NDTG to date in England. This loss of funding will have a huge and negative impact at a time when we (the NFDC) are encouraging our members to maintain their commitment to training at a time of industry-wide recession.”

The reduction in grant funding comes hot on the heels of a protracted discussion over the CPCS card scheme. Although this was recently resolved when CPCS finally recognised the specific equipment training needs of the demolition sector, the delays caused will now be magnified still further by another round of negotiations over NVQ funding.

Button further believes that the cutbacks will impact upon a Level 3 vocational qualification that is currently being developed by the National Demolition Training Group. “We have spent months developing a Demolition-specific NVQ Level 3. But how many companies will be willing to shell out £2,000 per man to get this new qualification when they could just as easily stick with the current NDTG 12-week distance learning course that delivers a Supervisor’s gold card. As far as I am concerned, the NDTG’s NVQ Level 3 is now on hold, pending feedback from the Learning and Skills Council and CITB ConstructionSkills.”

Further information here.