They can give you one if they want to, and some they will and some they won't....depends on who you know

Hi guys - I think you will find that another complaint has gone/or is going very soon to the RRC on this very issue challenging the gazette notices etc.  Then we may have a definitive idea of what they can and can't do.  In the meantime to give some weight to this process and to keep the pressure on then you need to contact your Member of Parliament.  The fact is that true upskilling is both essential and good for our trades.  Buying points is not.  At the moment we are going through the motions of buying points.  Very few of the courses actually teach any practitioner anything new.  There are some that do, but once you've learned it you don't need to go again.  The Federation have said to the Board and to Minister Williamson that we would support anything that is "matters necessary to".  We even gave an example - compulsory course on the new gas code - this would benefit all gasfitters and could be justified.  But it would be a oncer - i.e. once you've been you don't re-do it the next year and the year after that etc.  Any course needs to be able to stand up to some scrutiny, it needs to be justified and it needs to be affordable so it is not a barrier to entry or to licensing.  The people taking the courses need to be independent, qualified and respected.  Trouble is, if the Board say is is a matter necessary I guess practitioners would be looking to them to fund it as well - and we know they won't want to do that.  Suppliers are at the moment caught between a rock and a hard place.  Most of them want to a)  have a platform for their product, b) support industry  c) have a captive audience to promote their product d) have the interests of the industry at heart generally.   I do think we need to thank those suppliers providing free courses, because while we need to jump through these hoops to stay legal we are at least being aided by those suppliers running free course so that we aren't adding insult to injury by having to pay it as well. 2013 could well be a watershed year if the RRC come through with some good decisions, if the Charities Commission win the High Court Appeal that the Board have lodged against their decision to remove charitable status and if the Ombudsman publishes the report on his decision on some of the complaints sent to him.

What we need to do is sign up as many people as possible to the Federation - numbers count with politicians.  Let's give them some numbers to be worried about.

hi guys, yes Jax i too agree whole heartedly (2013 could well be a watershed year if the RRC come through with some good decisions, if the Charities Commission win the High Court Appeal that the Board have lodged against their decision to remove charitable status and if the Ombudsman publishes the report on his decision on some of the complaints sent to him)
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lets hope all those IF,s come through, cheers

hi guys, yes Jax,
(It still astounds me that the Federation with NO staff just volunteers can find the PGDB with so many staff including a gaggle of lawyers making so many mistakes.  Just astounding...)
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as you so rightly say. If it was not for the Federation who knows what strokes the board might have pulled. I urge all members (and remember that we all stand to gain from the work that they do) to make the effort to donate a little something so that the battle can continue because if we stop fighting for fairness in our trades the board will screw us to the floorboards, cheers