agreed, engineer i discussed that very point with my assessor as to how after 5 weeks some people can be deemed competent and join the scheme. In my opinion it would take more than 5 weeks just to be comfortable on the tools let alone be competent to work unsupervised as either a electrical installer or a electrician. i trained properly in my opinion via a EITB apprentaship which combined training,education to BTEC HNC level and 4 years of job training. When i think back if after just 5 weeks i had to work on my own as a techy id have been horrified, but the way it is now it appears thats fine. i would not be comfortable at all if thats all i had to back up what i was doing. But i guess whilst the training providers can make thousands of pounds providing courses that offer the right qualifications it will continue, what they dont offer is the time to learn properly and the time to gain valuable expierience, in my opinion it is this that gives you competance rather than just having the right qualifications. with reguards to the standard being set high , if honhest i expected to be tested alot more than i was and was quite surprised that i was only asked to perform one test, a zs test on a socket not exactly a test of my knowledge or skills, and the fact that all you need is a 17th edition qualification is not quite right, i had to provide evidence of a proper ,lol, electrical qualification and if i did not have my 17th 2382 i would have to have it within a year which again was quite surprising. So i guess the actual standard of the assessment is not as high or as exacting as i expected.