Ofqual stands for The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation and is a non-ministerial government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England.
Ofqual was established on 08/04/2008 as part of Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), taking over the regulatory functions that had previously been undertaken by the QCA directly through its regulation and standards division.
It was always intended that Ofqual would be an entirely separate body from the QCA. This was achieved on 01/04/2010 when Ofqual was established as a non-ministerial government department under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.
Why is Ofqual important for the Locksmith Industry?
Back in 2019 for the first time ever Ofqual regulated two locksmith training courses:
- Level 3 Diploma in Commercial Locksmiths & Property Security
- Level 3 Diploma in Automotive Locksmiths & Vehicle Security
Until 2019 there where no official regulated, vocational courses for the locksmith industry leaving locksmiths to choose a private company who had developed their own course and their own certification, of course, made up certification is simply a worthless piece of paper and merely given out to show that you had complete the said course.
How good these private courses actually are was a fiercely debated subject online and offline with a handful of companies all claiming to be the go to company for locksmith training, the truth was that non of these unofficial private courses where really any good, they where basically too short with most running for just 5 half days, some for 3 days, a time frame that just wasn’t long enough to learn an entire trade resulting in a rise in amateur, unskilled locksmiths with fewer and fewer skilled, knowledgeable locksmith who had learnt the trade from their father who learnt the trade from his father and so on.
So in 2019 Train Locksmiths, Atherton, Gtr Manchester, one of the country’s leading training colleges started to put together a couple of in-depth vocational locksmiths courses, one for the commercial and domestic sector and one for the automotive sector and because train locksmiths was classed as a college (running other courses such as Fire Safety, Health and Safety, Teaching and Assessing and Functional Skills course) their staff already had official teaching qualifications and they also knew the correct structure and volume of written and practical work needed to get the course regulated by Ofqual.
It’s debated that Ofqual actually contacted Train Locksmiths and asked them to develop the two courses, only Ofqual and Train Locksmiths know the facts behind how this all came about, either way it did upset a well know locksmith training centre who believed they where the foremost authority in the locksmith industry and should have been the ones involved.
So what we have now are two of the most advanced academic and vocational courses within the locksmith and security industry, which contain all the vital theory and skills regarding industry best standards and practices, government legislation and practical experience; with these Ofqual registered qualifications conducted through Highfield Qualifications (international awarding body) taking several months to achieve, it will endorse that the learner has the correct level of understanding, knowledge, application and evaluation skills to successfully conduct a career as a locksmith professional.
So do you have to take the official Ofqual course now?
There is no legal requirement, not yet anyway, to take the official Ofqual regulated locksmith training courses, you can still choose to do a private 3 or 5 day crash course, but why would you?
It is still early days and these are the first Ofqual regulated course for the locksmith industry, the first to be able to use the word Diploma in there title meaning that they will eventually be available in colleges and universities, at this present time I believe that Manchester University will be offering both of these courses with other colleges and universities around the country following suit.
Transitioning from the unofficial, private locksmith training course to Ofqual regulated Diploma’s won’t happen overnight, colleges and universities will need to employ actual skilled locksmiths with teaching qualifications, Unofficial, privately owned/run locksmith training centres will need to get all their staff teaching qualifications and pass certain other criteria which is why at the moment many of the privately owned/run locksmith training centres continue to push their own courses a few even denying that the official Ofqual courses exist
At the moment we believe that only Train Locksmiths Training College (the developers of the Courses) based in Greater Manchester and Keytek Locksmith Training Academy based in Dorset are able to run the official Ofqual courses but this will change in the next few months.
So what are the benefits of the Ofqual courses?
There are many benefits to taking the official Ofqual regulated Diplomas as opposed to taking a private locksmith training course, the main and most obvious benefit is that the Ofqual regulated Diplomas are more in-depth courses so you’ll learn more and be a better locksmith.
Also, because there are now officially Gov’t (Ofqual) regulated locksmith training courses this has opened up a mass of grants and funding that wasn’t available before. Have to just left the armed forces and thinking about a locksmith career? Great, you can use your ELCAS credits or other current/ex-Military grants such as SSAFA Grants, CTP Ministry of Defence Resettlement or Royal British Legion Grants
16-19 Bursary funding can also be used as well as student finance and ReACT funding for residents of Wales.
What’s in store for the future of the Locksmith Industry
Years down the line when everyone is aware that there are official OfQual regulated locksmith training courses and they have been running a while qualifying 100’s of student every year who’s to say that actual Gov’t regulation won’t be brought in and you’ll be required to hold this Diploma or face prosecution for illegally working on someone’s security without it? Yes it does seem far fetched but stranger things have happened. A heating engineer must be Gas Safe to work on a boiler so why not make sure that the person working on/with your security is properly qualified too?
We do however, definitely see a time not to far in the future where companies such as property developers will insist on the correct qualifications before any sub-contracting takes place and housing associations will hire based on qualifications too…
In Summary
The official Ofqual regulated locksmith training courses are available so you should forget all the other unofficial courses no matter how cheap they sound, they are cheap for a reason, there aren’t any good they are just filling a classroom with mugs, the more the better.
Get the proper qualification and there is more chance of your locksmith business being a success