Required qualifications for technicians.

[paulears]

My only beef is that I firmly believe training without testing - and I mean proper testing - is utterly pointless. The wording on many certificates should read John Smith attended a training session - and stop there. We all know many of these sessions don't even have a Plan B for when somebody actually ought to fail.

 

Has anyone ever failed on these courses?

 

I'd really quite like a piece of paper that says I'm competent - but it would have to be issued by somebody who knows their stuff, and sadly, these are few and far between.

 

Electric and gas have quite established systems of validation, but I really worry when training organisations who charge for their courses, also appear to be the ones who hand out the certificates. Some are trustworthy, but most of us know total idiots who have these pieces of paper - which devalues the entire scheme.

[Simon Lewis]

I disagree with Simon and believe some form of apprenticeship type vocational training on-the-job is the way forward.

 

I'm not knocking apprenticeships, but would be concerned if training courses combined with apprenticeships became the only way into a wide range of technical tasks. The Gas Safe situation is perhaps understandable, but I'd be wary of making "temporary power electrician" or "lighting designer" or "telehandler driver" a protected title... Note: I still want to see competence exhibited!

 

Simon

[Smiffy]

There was a move, not so long ago, by a Texan politician of some persuasion or other to introduce a law in the state or city that demanded that Lighting Designers working within the City/State (Can't remember now, was a while ago that I read this over at Light Network) should have a ticket of some sort allowing them to practice.

 

Needless to say this madness was ultimately shot down in flames, and after the IALD got a hold of it, and alerted their membership, the hate mail arriving each second at this idiot of a senators inbox was (apparently) truly staggering that the IALD President herself had to essentially announce the fact to the press that this was not actually an organised action by the association. I believe that it even made CNN.

 

My thoughts on that matter are all rather irrelevant being a Brit, but in some aspects it seems that in the UK we are slowly and possibly inexorably wandering towards a time when this far fetched scenario could become a possibility. To my mind, I'm all for certificates of competency / attendance when it comes to training exercises for trades such as Sparks, Riggers, Steel Works, and so on, whereby the action of one individual carrying out their trade could have a health / mortality impact on another. For an LD / Sound Designer / Stage Manager and so on though, I fail to see the need for a bit of paper. Your competency (or lack of it) is plain to see to all around you. I would think that we have all seen many a University attending Lighting Degree holder that we wouldn't let change a lamp in our living room.

 

At the time of writing this, approximately 33% of the votes are for the 'None' category. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of the 'nones' are the older more experienced members, who have been doing this long enough to be able to get work on the merits of their known abilities (known to production managers and peers that is) and for whom there is little need to prove that they know anything, or are indeed particularly good at anything.

 

While the concept of and desire for such certifications is admirable, I fear that the next genners get far too caught up in the idea of them, at the risk of becoming obsessed with needing to have Cert X, Y, and maybe even Z that they get somewhat distracted from the possibilities of what they might be able to learn just through the act of 'doing' while on a site working with older and more experienced crew members.

 

As I say, I'm all for them, and I applaud the intent behind them, just try not to let your career be dictated by them, or indeed, let your wallets be drained by attempting to get every 'qualification' going.

 

Just my tuppenceworth.

 

Cheers

 

Smiffy

[GreatBigHippy]

I agree that bits of paper aren't the be all and end all but I think they have their place.

I can see the point of the whole "learning by doing" mindset, the issue is that you only learn once you have done. As has been mentioned you can go a long time without having to use a certain skill or technique, what if you find yourself in a position where you have advanced skills in everything in a certain field except one tiny bit, which you suddenly require. Now, the obvious answer is, find someone who knows and get them to show you. Well, doesn't that describe a training course?

They exist, like any qualification, to give you a general overview of a subject area, the groundwork as it were. There is no degree that I can think of (apart from any that require practical experience eg. medicine) that will give you the sort of knowledge that 10 years in the workplace will. But it will give you that grounding, highlight areas where you are weak and maybe even open your eyes to things you hadn't considered.

They should also, and this is the main thrust of those bits of paper, allow you to see the safety implications of the tasks that you undertake. They also allow employers (which, I think many of you forget, may have no idea what we get up to on a day to day basis) to be a little more secure in their position for H&S/insurance purposes.

I believe that they should be more rigorous, testing at the end should mean exactly that, but then you move down the track of external accreditation. Maybe this is something the ABTT should be looking at with their award system? It seems perfectly placed for it.

[J Pearce]

The danger with 'accreditation' systems is that they focus more on attaining the certificate than actually gaining knowledge. Sadly this is now systemic in all of our country's education faculties.

 

Additionally the trainer/assessor should be suitably qualified (please see above caveats). I have been on many county council training courses where I knew far more about the topic than the course leader. PAT Testing training was a joke!

 

All in all I see it to be a lot of fuss, bother and expense for not much gain. It takes very little time to assess someone's ability, a good manager can work out whether someone knows what they are on about very quickly.

All the scheme would achieve would be to make tech's poorer and shift responsibility from those who actually are responsible onto someone who has been on a trainers training course...

[Scottish_AV_in London]

The trouble with learning in the modern workplace is that people who attend uni and gain all the relevant paper work to a desired role, but often don't get that role because they lack the relevant industry experience.

 

I have worked from a floor sweeper right up to management and run the hire department for a firm in scotland. My career has taken me all over the world, both on land and sea (cruise ships) and that variety of work has let me gain a huge breadth of knowledge in all the fields enabling me to manage successfully. because of my lack of specialism, I very much depend on my team of techs who specialise in their relevant fields.

 

On the topic of certificates, health and safety (insurance mainly) dictates that if your operating something or installing something that you are trained to a recognisable standard with a certificate to prove competency. Points raised on "paper not proving presense of common sense" is very much true, however 9/10 guys in this industry tick all the boxes in terms of common sense, and those that don't rarely succeed getting past being a "sweeper" - I even know a few who never even reached that stage because they were that much of a liability...

 

However, I Digress...

 

If you are looking to be a successful all rounder, gain yourself a valuable grounding in that you understand all aspects of the industry in which your going (my background being conference and live events). As a contractor of freelances techs I look to see that my guys are all up to date with PLI, training certs (PASMA, IPAF, FaW, WaH), not to mention any experience they have in a specialist field (Rigging, Flying, Sound, Lights, Projection, AV).

 

But if your only starting out on the road to being a self employed sub-contractor / freelancer, you need the patience of a saint while you build your rep in your area with the relevant companies / venues / theatres.