Got this from Midsummer:
Fight the MCS 'Competence Criteria' proposals
MCS are proposing
big changes to the qualifications requirements for all PV installers. The changes could be disastrous for small installation companies.
Fight the changes by clicking here to use our simple tool to email MCS with your views. It will only take about 30 seconds. The more installers that respond, the better. Please stand up and be counted!
If the changes are approved then staff in installation companies will have to either attend lots more expensive training courses, or gain accreditation through an additional assessment for 'Experienced Workers'. A 'Category 1' installer will need to have spent at least four years in the industry, but given that the industry has only effectively existed since the FIT was introduced two years ago, hardly anyone will be able to take this route to accreditation. The rest of us are likely to be left with having to pay for more training courses.
MCS's own research showed that they needed to remove barriers for entry to the MCS scheme, and make the competence requirements simpler. They also found that attending training courses and holding qualifications did not relate to competence. But the scheme they have come up with adds more barriers, and relies entirely on more paperwork assessments and training courses.
The proposed new requirements are pointless. Installers are
already inspected every year for compliance with the MCS standards, and if installations are not being done safely and to a high standard then MCS can (and should) ensure that an installer takes steps to improve their work. Having a sheaf of certificates to say you've attended several months of boring and expensive training courses does not make you a competent installer.
The only people who will benefit from the new requirements are the training centres and accreditation bodies, and we are sure that they will be lobbying hard for the new requirements to be brought in. Customers won't benefit - ultimately we have to pass on the additional costs imposed on us to our customers.
Installation companies certainly won't benefit.
The full details of the MCS proposals are on the
MCS website here. Do take a look - though they are so badly written it is not easy to decipher them. It's hard for small installation companies to stand up and be counted. We simply don't have the resources to put into lobbying that the accreditation bodies do. But if, like us, you don't believe
more training courses and
paperwork assessments are the right approach to ensuring good standards of installation, we've made it really easy for you to make your views known.
Email MCS with your views or click here to use our simple tool. It will only take about 30 seconds. The more installers that respond, the better. Please take a moment of your time now to save hours in a training centre later.
The deadline is 5pm on Monday. You can also fill in the official response to the consultation at
mcs.online-consultation.co.uk. This is hard work as the response document is so poorly written and most of the questions are irrelevant - but if you can find time it is a good idea to do this as well.
Thanks for reading this. Hopefully by pulling together we can make MCS see sense and not smother the industry in mountains of extra paperwork.
