The first part of the Course is for the City & Guilds Technical Certificates at Levels 2 and 3 and is held in various unique and specially built plumber training bays, workshop areas and well equipped classrooms. This training is broken into 13 separately bookable 5-day modules (with some limited evening and Saturday availability) supplemented by home study and optional, but recommended, occasional sessions during weekdays in BTSC's Self-Study classroom where a trainer regularly visits to help trainees and explain anything they have not fully understood in the training modules. On completion, a trainee gains the City & Guilds Technical Certificates at Levels 2 and 3 and the BTSC Advanced Plumbing Certificate but is not yet a City & Guilds Qualified Plumber.
Trainees then attend the short but important NIC courses (National Inspection Council) for the Un-vented Hot Water Systems and Water Supply Regulations qualifications and also gain the JIB (Joint Industry Board) Health and Safety Card without which a plumber cannot work on most construction sites.
These are followed by two short sessions preparing trainees for the City & Guilds NVQ Levels 2 and 3 which consist, essentially, of a series of up to 12 visits by a BTSC assessor to a trainee's workplace to assess their work, as specified by City & Guilds. This is obviously carried out once a trainee has started work (at either a BTSC associated company, if placed by BTSC, or one located by the trainee) and once successfully completed a trainee becomes a full City & Guilds Qualified Plumber.
Trainees then return to the Centre for 2 days of ACS gas training and 3 days of assessments (ACS stands for Accredited Certification Scheme) that form part of the application for the potentially very lucrative CORGI registration that is necessary to connect gas pipes and install and service gas appliances.
Finally there is one day's training for the NIC Energy Efficiency qualification that enables a plumber to self-certify certain 'notifiable' work rather than having to pay for a Building Inspector to come out and do it.
Building Trade Skills Centres Master Plumber certification
This qualification is part of a unique dual-certification programme with the City & Guilds qualifications and is gained in part by learning about additional important aspects of plumbing not required by City & Guilds and not therefore covered in the training modules. This valuable extra knowledge, gained by self-study, is detailed at the end of each module and is tested with a BTSC end-of-module exam.
As well as passing these exams, to be awarded BTSC's Master Plumber qualification it is necessary to gain the full City & Guilds Qualified Plumber qualification, Un-vented Hot Water and Water Regulations certifications, JIB Health and Safety Card, ACS qualification in gas and the Energy Efficiency Certificate.
On achieving all of these accreditations the trainee becomes a BTSC Master Plumber, one of the UK's most highly qualified new plumbing professionals and part of Britain's new breed of hi-tech plumbers.
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