For years the rogues and scammers have had free reign of the locksmith industry, doing substandard work overcharging and worse, and not a day went by without someone posting on social media that they have be overcharged or scammed by a rogue locksmith, but hopefully the new official OFQUAL regulated qualification will put an end to this.

With the new OFQUAL regulated qualifications all course participants will be required to meet a certain standard in order to achieve the qualification. Once qualified, in order to maintain a good trading status, locksmiths will be required to maintain a clear DBS check for the course and many clients may request this on contract induction. This can be initially achieved alongside your course with help and guidance from Train Locksmiths, Atherton, Manchester the only locksmith training centre in the country deemed qualified to run the new courses.

Since word of the new official locksmith courses was announced a few months ago the rogues, scammers and amateurs have been causing a stir online trying to convince the general public that the announcement was “fake news” yes really!! One rogue locksmith even publically stated that he would just fake the OFQUAL qualification on his computer and no one would be any the wiser, hopefully he’ll be able to pick the lock on his prison cell, as OFQUAL is the government’s official Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and faking government documents as you might suspect is quite illegal.

 The truth is that the new OFQUAL regulated qualification is unlike any others to date, superseding all existing unofficial locksmith qualifications and creating a minimum standard amongst all professionals. Unlike the week long course previously offered the official courses will take a minimum of six months to complete.

Is The New Qualification legally required?

Initially No and this is due to the fact that only one training provider was qualified to run the official OFQUAL regulated courses but as more training centres meet the minimum requirement and a greater number of locksmiths start to gain the new qualification it may very well become a legal requirement. However it is advisable that all locksmiths currently trading should get the new qualification ASAP because with an official OFQUAL regulated qualification, locksmith professionals can take advantage of larger contracts within the commercial and construction industry, since contractors earn more money than employees (contractor calculator, 2017). This qualification will eliminate the competition between unprofessional and professional tradesman, giving the industry official regulations.

Furthermore, locksmiths like many other trades abide by many government legislations, for example; Health and Safety At Work Act 1974, Regulatory Reform 2005, Equality Act 2010, GDPR Date Protection Act 2016, Building Regulations 2010, Public Indemnity, Public Liability and Employers Liability and these new qualifications assist in that knowledge and understanding.

Why are only Train Locksmiths Running These New Official Courses?

Train Locksmiths Ltd is an approved training provider. They have a fully approved training centre with 6 fully qualified tutors (click here to see qualifications), tutors with official teaching qualifications. OFQUAL and the awarding bodies did contact a number of other locksmith training centres because ideally the more centres that could run the courses the quicker all current trading locksmiths could gain the new qualification and the sooner official regulation could be brought in but no other locksmith training centre had tutors with official teaching qualifications which is a requirement when running official OFQUAL courses.

Because up until now there was no official locksmith qualification locksmith training centres like MLA, MPL, Matrix and even Train Locksmiths simply made up their own qualifications and this was quite legal and happens a lot with un-regulated industries, All locksmith training centres will now have to gain the required teaching qualifications before being allowed to run the new official OFQUAL courses.

With Newly Available Funding You Could Get The Course For Free

The new OFQUAL regulated courses opens the door to funding that was not previously available. The unofficial courses previously offered by a number of locksmith training centres did not qualify for funding as they were not recognised by the government, but with the new official OFQUAL courses there are a number of funding options and government grants available check out the list here.

Regardless of all the hysteria online, which is being driven by a just few rogue locksmiths, most locksmiths now welcome the new OFQUAL qualification as a good thing for the future of the locksmith industry and recently Manchester Metropolitan University have announced a partnership with Train Locksmiths so expect to see the new courses run here and at other Universities across the country before too long.