Finding a Tradesman that knows their Trade

Following some minor building works at our offices in London it became clear to me just how difficult it is to find decent tradespeople.

We were repeatedly let down and we also encountered some extremely poor quality workmanship.

Apologies for the stereotyping but the best tradesman / builders (by far) were Polish.

I have had a very similar experience domestically over the past few years, as have friends and family.

Why are we not producing good tradespeople and how do we know if somebody knows what they’re doing? After all, you need no formal qualification to describe yourself as a ‘builder’.

What we need is proper training in schools leading to an actual qualification that demonstrates competence.

Students could leave school at 18 with a provable skill which could be checked.

This should begin in compulsory education and would help people into work where they could gain further experience on the tools.

Let’s stop pretending everybody is an academic and start properly training people in the trades.

We are getting left behind.

Nevil Chiles is the Managing Director of KC Tutors. www.kctutors.co.uk