Courses are available – so grab the opportunity

This is, in many respects, the fault of the industry in general, for there may be those employers who see an engineer gaining a qualification as a negative – ie, then they can ask for more money or move on to another company after their qualification.

Regarding college locations: There are schemes for experienced security engineers with no formal qualifications (often a qualified electrician) that do not relate to the location of a college. Many of these engineers have been in the trade longer than the appropriate City and Guilds. With little effort and cost, these schemes can result in the appropriate qualification for Fire Security and Emergency Alarm Systems.

Such information has been published by Security Installer several times over the past few years and yet few have taken advantage and gained the qualification that they not only deserve but may, in due course, find advantageous.

It is time that we grew up and acted like adults and stopped complaining about areas that we do have control over but cannot be bothered to access. I do agree, however, that for those new to the industry, (the apprentices) the situation could be much better. The lack of local colleges does make it a lottery, based upon post code, when trying to access the educational system and gain the needed qualification.

There is also the apparent lack of local education authorities nationwide to appreciate the need for training workers (tradesmen and women) as opposed to the large amounts being invested in “media studies”. This seems rather suicidal. Any society that can have a "degree as a norm" may argue well as the ship sinks ... but a society with a good carpenter will stay afloat!

There are two problems – one being the industry in general and the other being our government education system that seems hell bent on destruction.