40yrs ago now, starting in 1985 a new wave of Compulsory Education qualifications started rolling out in the UK: this was the beginnings of the General Certificate of Secondary Education qualifications (GCSE's) which amalgamated / replaced ORDINARY 'O' levels and CERTIFICATE OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 'CSE' in schools.

 

Around the same time a 'new wave' of Further Education qualifications were also rolled out in the UK; this was the beginnings of the 'National Vocational Qualifications" (NVQ's) and the Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQ's) (both at Levels 2&3) which replaced the former CITY & GUILDS CRAFT CERTIFICATE and the CITY & GUILDS ADVANCED CRAFT CERTIFICATE in construction.

 

N/SVQ's are written by awarding bodies; in the UK the Awarding body for construction related qualifications is City & Guilds. (C&G)

 

C&G take their lead from varying sources including industry, so a large part of the N/SVQ curriculum is influenced somewhat from large modern house building company's; afterall it is called the 'construction industry', not the 'restoration industry'

 

Furthermore the "Volatile Organic Compounds" (VOC) ratings were introdued in the UK through the early 2000's (not such a bad thing) which led to a lot of traditionally used materials not being so readily available (and not taught about) as they were before,

 

This could well be good reasons why it's not always easy to find trades nowadays who know about and understand period buildings and traditional materials.

 

The term "cowboy builder" is a very old saying, and appears to have re-arisen (frankly an awful term often thrown around by people with often very little to no understanding of the construction industry itself and the UK education systems, plus today the world has sadly become a place filling up with angry and distrusting people, where it really was a much nicer place full of community spirit when we started out.

 

When all's said and done; colleges deliver construction industry courses of study, they no longer deliver the heritage crafts skills courses that they used to 40yrs ago.

 

In defense of today's trades: they are rarely bad people (apart from of course the utter idiots who seem to think that videoing themselves smashing up works that they claim to have not been paid for, and then uploading that video onto social media) which does in fact raise another much-lessor heard point:  - there has been a remarkable increase in the number of non-paying  clients in recent years also, but that's for another time.

 

The trades today only do what they have been taught to do, they have not been taught about period building maintenance, or restoration, or conservation; the apprenticeship schemes are not the priority they once were for Governments.

Most colleges in the UK no longer have the facilities they once had, for example; construction science labs, and most schools no longer have the facilities they once had, for example: woodworking workshops with lathes, or metalworking workshops with milling machines or a forge (unlike, back when we were at School)

 

Furthermore, social media 'influencers' (or as we call them: social media comedians) portray everything as easy and can be done at warp speed! Unless of course, like us, you see just how bad most of them really are.

This really doesn't add well into the mix, yet the Government pushes for online everything these days, even in education from early years - maybe explains the idiots smashing things up we mentioned earlier?

 

When you've interviewed large numbers of school leavers who's mum's have filled out their application form for them, and Despite mum driving them to their interview they still cannot arrive on time because they 'got lost walking from the carpark' - no apology of course, then they often cannot spell their own surname or even the name of the street they live in, despite having spent 11-12 years in school, or do basic arithmetic without immediately reaching for their phones' calculator, then you'll only just start to see the possible reasons why.

 

Then come the days when you are stood waiting to deliver technology lessons to a group of 30, but 9 or 10 are constantly late,  and then you are constantly interrupted throughout with "Oi, you got a pen!" "OI, you got some paper!" "Oi, you got a calculator!" (Yes, that is them adressing their Lecturer) plus you are constantly interrupted by their mobile phones ringing and pinging despite asking many times for them to be left on silent, but of course you cannot discipline anyone.

 

It seems to us that the word 'builder' in this awful, derogatory term needs updating, although we're not saying what with, in the same way as the qualifications were 'updated' 40 years ago, it also seems to us that those who think the term 'cowboy builder' is a clever remark, maybe came through a similar background to those they accuse.

 

There really is always two sides to everything; we've seen and experienced both sides in great depths which, like it or not, is what leads us to see things the way we do.