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Joshy

Joshy

Joshy

Soldato
Joined
15 Jun 2009
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Having a slight bit of an issue with a training provider for the my apprenticeship and I wondered if the internet could perhaps shed some light.

Long story short, the goal posts for my qualification have apparently changed and due to me being massively behind on my work (Not due to any fault of mine I hasten to add :p) a MASSIVE chunk of work, assessments and tests are no longer valid and are basically not worth the paper they are written on.

At the very least a year's worth of work is scrap. At the worse, the full three years. Awesomes :(.

I'm due to finish in 2 months and to be bluntly honest, I haven't got a (worthwhile) certificate to my name . Seriously due to no fault of my own either, my protfilo is filled with all the work that I was supposed to do but I'm at the work where I cannot go any further with my qualification with an assessor coming out and watching me work, but they only bother to come out once every 3 - 6 MONTHS, despite me being massively behind. They're sodding useless.

Since I've been on the scheme I've been trained by about 4 different companies and had about 8 different assessors, all of which are more interested in cover happy to blame his predecessor for every little ****-up but not make any effort to sort it out.

So bascailly I'm ****ed of and am getting pretty close to rage quitting :mad:

Am I just going to have to lump it?

I know the internet probably isn't going to be able to help, but I like to have a good old moan :D.
 
I don't know how your qualification works so please excuse the questions if they're obvious. Is the qualification to become a Bentley approved technician or something like that? If so then can you not speak to someone there/at your work and request that they observe your work and provide the necessary approvals to show you've completed the requirements? Presumably as they'll have sunk a fair amount of money into your training it is also in their interests to make sure you qualify so that might make them pay a bit more attention.

If the worst comes to occur then what does that leave you with? It might be worth seeing if you can get personal references from your manager(s) to show that you're a good worker and have completed the requirements even if you don't have the bit of paper to prove it? It's not as good I'm sure but it's got to be better having some evidence that you've done it than none.

In fact if I'm reading it right then what you really need is an assessor to come out, I'd suggest you go as high as you can/is necessary to get one of the bosses to exert a bit of pressure on the assessment agency to send someone along and do their job.
 
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The issue I'm having is with the NVQ side of things. My apprenticeship should have seen me with a Level 2 and Level 3 at this point of time. Despite me finished all of the required work on my side about a year ago, I've been waiting for the assessment side to catch up. I literally can't do anything to get things moving because it A) Depends entirely on what jobs I get to do and B) If the assessor can be bothered to come out to watch me do it.

Best case scenario is that all of my Level 2 work is valid and its just the Level 2 stuff that is scrap, but still I'm a YEAR behind on level 2 work and at the rate of one visit every 3 months I'm not going to be finished for at least 6/9 months is ridiculous. And then another year+ to catch up and re do the Level 3 work. A 3 year apprenticeship becomes a 5/6 year one.

I've been annoyed for a while at the lack of progress. I did manage to speak to the 'big boss' assessment wise but again, excuses and a lot of 'Well, there's not much we can do'. His ace card was telling us that we were getting another assessor, who actually seems worse than the last one.

A colleague of mine called him on Friday which is when we heard the finish. He geuninely didn't seem to care, his reaction of us not being happy was 'Well, you're not the only ones', and when questioned a little more he replied 'I'll explain it to you when I'm next there, which is in 3 months' :mad: :p.

I've spoken to other guys on the shop floor and they claim that they've ever had to prove their certificates, but as far as I'm concerned, that's not really the point. At the end of 3 years worth of work I should at least something to show for it.

I'm going to get 'Bentley approved service technician' regardless, but still, nothing national and actually worth the paper it is inked on :p.
 
I'm not 100% clear if this is what you've done but I wouldn't be speaking to the big boss in terms of the assessment centres initially, I'm suggesting getting your manager(s) at Bentley to exert their influence - they're paying for this (presumably) and I'd guess they want to see some sort of return on it so if you can get them on side then they've probably got a bit more sway in terms of getting results than you have.

You're right, it's not the point that the other guys haven't had to prove their certificates - that it hasn't been necessary in the past doesn't mean it will always be that way in the future and even without that consideration it's something for your own satisfaction as well.
 
I guess speaking to my dealer principal is the next step, but I'm somewhat reluctant seeing as he has said 15 words to me in the last 3 years (Yes, I've counted) and . My salary is up for re negation in a few months and I don't really want him to know that I realistically can't go away with out making the last 3 years of my life utterly pointless so that he can offer me peanuts. If I'm saying for a while I need as much as a pay bump as I can.

Rock> Me <Hard place :(
 
It does sound like a rather tricky situation certainly and I don't envy you it but it may be worth looking at longer term - while a pay rise would be nice the NVQ is likely to be more important overall I'd have thought? So therefore might be worth focusing on as that's something you can take away, a pay bump at one place won't necessarily count for much somewhere else.

However if the dealer principal is going to be less than helpful about it and offers you a derisory sum then unfortunately you may have to cut your losses - DM has suggested that he would like to employ you potentially hasn't he? I'm not suggesting you bank everything on that but it's something to investigate further and of course don't go into the meeting too much on the defensive as you may be pleasantly surprised which can make an adjustment of attitude difficult to do in a hurry.

Good luck getting it sorted either way, I hope that you get some sort of satisfaction for the NVQ.
 
Ideally I somehow want to get off the tools, but I always wanted the NVQ as a backup in case things went bad, and most of all, so I had something to justify the last 3 years of my life. When I went into this apprenticeship I went in committed that I wouldn't coast it like I did at school and would end up with something that I was proud of. I got apprentice of the year, I made such an impression that training executives at the VW centre know me by name and pull me aside for a chat when I go for training in Milton Keynes, for once in my life I put the effort in but it seems like I'm not going to get an awful lot out in return. For once in my life I put a semi decent amount of effort into something and I get screwed over. Sods law I guess :p.

The offer with DM is what I'd like to do, but he wants me to finish, but when staring down the barrel of another few years I struggle to see myself doing it. Not after september when my rent stops getting paid and things start to get a bit hand to mouth. It's not even about the money, it's the principal, I don't really want to be there any more, I've done the work, I've put the effort in, I'm staying 'Just in case' which'll always get me. It gets me now. I don't 'expect' things, I don't 'expect' my qualification to be sorted by now, but I don't mind having a bit of a moan when it doesn't work out like now :D.

The other option is moving to cyprus with my mother but I don't want to do that because lord help me, I quite like it in the UK. I could stay here, go to Uni, or find another trade, or even find another dealership to employ me as I might decide I like spannering cars when I'm out of where I am, but I don't know. I do need my NVQ but I'm awfully tempted to walk out of there without it. It's not going to make me any happier having it. Actually, if I've got to stay another 2 years it is going to make me a damn sight more unhappy.

Put it this way, one of the apprentices that was a lot further than I was at this point of time is STILL there and is STILL without his level 3 a year after he should have finished, despite him regularly getting massive engine out jobs that should do wonders for his NVQ. How long is it going to take me when I get oil and filter changes? :-\

Thanks for the kinds words though. Much appreciated :)
 
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