What is the definition of the term : TIME SERVED ONLY

Time served only. means someone who has completed their indentured apprenticeship which is usually 4 years,with the extra year to HNC level

lets say tha someone has been working for twenty years as a plasterer or roofer or your own trade if you like
and you have a choise between a newly completed time served and an experienced worker

who do you pick? (lets say for a hit the ground running job)

and bearing in mind apprenticeships are few and far between these days time served must be a tricky one if not near impossible to fill during times when the building industry is in full swing

myself i will always go for the experienced person,our company policy when an apprentice completes his time he has 2 choices,he can have a bonus payment and leave the companies employment for two years and be guaranteed a job at the end of 2years if they wish to,or stay with the company and train up from the age of 25 for junior supervisors.

I agree and because apprenticeship are so rare now we end up with this lot

Apprenticeships = Now effectively non-existant
Fast-Track Courses = Booming
Result = Too many fast-trackers
Fast-Trackers = Not plumbers and proberly not any use what-so-ever

why not offer incentives for companies to train people who have just finished C & G lvl 2/3/4/5 in whatever industry they have picked as a career and if they payed their own way through it all then this should show real commitment to the trade/craft

From 2011 (or maybe 2012) the law is going to be that you have to either have or be working towards your NVQ to work as a plumber. So one way or another up and coming plumbers are going to have to get those qualifications. And since there are no apprenticeships, it's going to have to be private colleges or some other shortcut/cheating method

Anyway you will find that the 6129 does make you a qualified Plumber, as It 's a Machanical Engineering Certificate. An NVQ is work based quliforcation which is usually for young people who are on apprenticeships. After you have done your 6129 you will then be able to straight to Gas. The 6129 covers far more and is more intensive and a better qualiforcation than the 6128
but if people are fast tracking the 6129 then a load of cow dung is all that comes out of the other end perhaps with one in a hundred who is half decent lol
a lot of this makes the time served part more like "gold dust need only apply"

our company take on 10 trainee pipefitter/plumbers.10 trainee electricians every year and that is just our bristol office,not sure of croydon,exeter,bridgend,manchester,liverpool,newca stle and glasgow,in my day it was city & guilds 337/338/339 and was a minimum of 4 years indentured apprenticeship.all i know is that i have to do an assessment of every trainee every 3 months under my supervision,a bit of a pain sometimes as 50% of them just go through the motion of getting to work,then just spend most of the day shuffling around.over the last 5 years we have reduced our work force,for overheads reasons,and a large recruitment agency has bought into the company with the sole rights to supply labour to any one of our numerous contracts.that is when the trash come out of the closets.thats a new thread on its own with the chancers.

Yay bin there done that ...usually to look for a good employer in my case though! =)

time served is apprenticed to another

attending a fasttrack for an nvq doesnt count

the government came up with a scheme to ensure that only those that were competant were allowed to work in the building industry

then couldnt deliver it