Building qualifications – time to take credit for experience

After 27 years in the industry, builder and business owner Peter Bennett decided it was time to get formally qualified, taking advantage of the BCITO’s trade qualification course which credits those with relevant skills and experience.

“This is a chance to have your experience and skills recognised
in order to help future-proof your business and career”.

For many builders like myself, the issue of formal qualifications has been a real carrot-and-stick scenario. The potential benefits of getting qualified have wrestled with the hassle of acquiring a national certificate. However, recent developments in the industry have tipped the balance to make certification a greater priority than ever before.

When I started building some 27 years ago, the plan was to earn a bit of cash while I waited to reach the minimum age for joining the NZ Police. But I enjoyed the work so much that I never left.

After starting out in a pre-cut and nail company, I shifted to work with an actual builder, but could never get an apprenticeship, so I just kept on building and learning, because at that stage you didn’t need a qualification to work. After a few years, I assumed I had missed the opportunity to get qualified.

I tell this story because I imagine it is similar to many other builders out there who now find themselves in the same boat.

Through my company, Selva Residential, I’ve put two guys through their apprenticeships and have another one just starting his third year. I know their careers will certainly benefit by having a formal qualification, and I know when I was their age I was less than thrilled about missing out on the chance.

More focus on qualifications

With the Licensed Building Practitioners scheme coming into effect from March 2012, there will be more focus on qualifications across the whole industry, and by 2015 it will become impossible to get a licence without a qualification.

After completing my first two apprentices, I was at a Master Builders meeting one night when I bumped into someone from the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) who told me about an experience recognition programme they have in place for builders like me – people who have a wealth of practical experience, and while we see the value of gaining a national certificate, we’re likely too busy to go ‘back to school’.

The programme allows you to gain the BCITO’s National Certificate in Carpentry, using your work on past projects to demonstrate your skills, thereby ticking off areas against the certificate in which you are clearly competent.

Recognising experience

To have your experience recognised and credited toward a national certificate, a BCITO training advisor will examine your portfolio and recognise any knowledge gaps you may have. For those who are deemed not to have any knowledge gaps, the process can be over in a few months.

To fill any knowledge gaps, you’re given a set of books – the same ones you might have seen your own apprentices using – and then it’s just a matter of working through them. You go at your own pace and can get it done in six weeks, six months or longer if you’re stretched for time. Whichever way you choose, it works out to be much faster, and much cheaper, than starting from scratch.

And I definitely gained some knowledge in the process. It starts out pretty easy, but the materials move on quickly to covering some pretty complicated areas, proving you can keep on learning until the day you hang up your tools.

Becoming qualified a necessity

The bottom line is that if you’re anything like me, you’ll have noticed the industry is changing, and to be a professional builder a qualification is fast becoming a necessity.

This is a chance to have your experience and skills recognised in order to help future-proof your business and career. It is certainly a good move to stay ahead of the curve on this, taking advantage of the opportunity now rather than being forced to sign up for a course a year or two down the line because you’re seeing an impact on your business.

Peter Bennett is the director of Auckland-based Selva Residential – he completed his National Certificate in Carpentry in March 2011; for further information on gaining a national certificate, visit www.bcito.org.nz