What Will The Upcoming Regulation Mean For Current Working Locksmiths?

For those who don’t know 2019 saw big changes for the locksmith industry, most locksmiths did welcome the planned changes saying that industry was in desperate need of change and regulation but some locksmiths and a few self-appointed training centres were not so thrilled about what was planned, but why?

Well let’s first discuss the changes and the self-appointed locksmith training centres, what this term actually means and why they were resistant to the planned changes.

The locksmith industry, like many industries has no government regulation meaning anyone can set themselves up as a locksmith with very little knowledge or skill and are doing nothing wrong in the eyes of the law, it’s not just the locksmith industry that is without regulation, many industries and trades operate without regulation such as plasterers, roofers, joiners, gardeners.

However, over the years thanks to inexpensive and even free internet advertising becoming available to all, online 100% guaranteed pass locksmith courses and the availability of cheap imported tools, the number of amateur unskilled locksmiths trading in the UK surpassed the number of skilled, professional locksmiths for the first time with record numbers of complaints to trading standards and even the police, unfortunately for the victims, if a locksmith turns up does a bad job, makes a mess of your property and then overcharges you too it’s seen as a civil matter leaving you to deal with the aftermath  yourself through the small claims court, a route that is expensive and time-consuming and not worth the trouble to most people so the rogues of the locksmith industry get away with time and time again.

Due to the record numbers of complaints being made on a weekly basis and a few major incidents cause by unskilled, incompetent locksmiths the government finally decided to look into the industry and was shocked at what it found.

After 12 months of research the government decided to move towards regulation of the locksmith industry and started to work with the only locksmith training centre it came across that had qualified teachers, Train Locksmith, Atherton, Gtr Manchester and Highfield Qualification to design an official OfQual qualification for the industry and in October 2019 after many months of working in secret two official OfQual locksmith qualifications were realised, but, there was still a problem.

During their research the government qualifications board realise that because no other self-appointed locksmith training centre had staff with any teaching qualifications regulation would take time.

In an unregulated industry anyone can set up a training centre or offer courses, I mean look at the number of Google Adwords and Organic Marketing Courses available online, run by people who themselves have no knowledge of the industry, again this is not illegal, but in my eye it IS a scam.

It was discovered most locksmith training centres were selling 5 and even 3 day locksmith courses promising certification and full knowledge of the industry, which is ridiculous, 3 days to learn an entire trade and certification in an unregulated industry! In reality these courses were just a precursor to getting the trainee to sign up to private locksmith club with an annual fee.

Train Locksmiths, Atherton however had fully qualified teaching staff, and when I say qualified I mean qualified to work in schools and colleges as teachers as well as being skilled in the locksmith profession too, so this was the company that OfQual decided to work with, but when the qualifications were finally announced in October 2019 some of the other self appointment training centres where angry that they had not been the ones chosen and one of them started social media campaigns rubbishing the new qualifications and in some cases describing them as fake, of course it wasn’t long before OfQual and the government stepped in to reprimand these companies and release official statements regarding the validity of the new qualifications.

So is the Locksmith Industry Now Regulated?

Short answer is no, because as there is only one training centre qualified to run the official course it will take years for all the locksmiths currently operating in the UK to achieved the new qualification which is no longer a 5 day course, it’s now a 6 months course with both written and practical parts so at the moment locksmiths CAN still trade and compulsory regulation is still a number of years away.

Many of the locksmith training centres who were against the regulation are still offering their own worthless courses, one of them is going all out with online promotion of their courses in an effort to ‘clean up’ so to speak, before the planned regulation becomes common knowledge and unfortunately many naive people are choosing the unofficial course due to the fact that it’s cheaper and shorter than the governments official OfQual course.

Will These People Get Their Money Back Once They Find Out?

As news spreads, locksmiths who gained unofficial certification from an unofficial locksmith training course after the OfQual course and upcoming regulation was officially announced have started to demand refunds, but again it is seen as a civil matter at the moment, but as I write this word is that the government regulator board IS looking into this especially the wording of their ads, many which claim to be ‘official’ courses.

The truth is these companies will probably shut down once they have taken enough bookings making it very difficult to get a refund.

Not all training centres are behaving in this unethical manner, some are now getting teaching qualifications for their staff and working with Train Locksmiths and OfQual to become satellite training centres.

Manchester University will also be offering the new OfQual courses next year so the time frame for official regulation may be reduced if locksmiths can achieve the official qualification at more places, only time will tell.

Have you fallen victim to one of the rogue locksmith training centre? comment below….

 

Read more about each course here.

Level 3 Diploma In Commercial Locksmiths And Property Security

Level 3 Diploma In Automotive Locksmiths And Vehicle Security

To Discuss These Opportunities Further Please visit the official locksmith training website www.trainlocksmiths.co.uk