acs resit failed again

[gasmarc]

Sal to be honest i think you might be wasting your time or worse still a liability to yourself and your tenants , I have been doing the gas for nearly 20 years and am still learning

 

[kirkgas]

There where 8 in the group and 3 passed ...what ive heard is max pass rate for the center is 2 or 3 per group ...every time.they must make a killing on resit fees

absolute nonsense, where did you "hear" this, it is 100% complete nonsense, but if it was true do you not think we would keep it a better secret than to tell someone who had failed, name the centre you sat your acs in to see if others have any experience, if only 3 passed then only 3 deserved to pass, re the comment about some of them looking in their books, this is standard practice in assessments, they are all open book on practical, i know some places have some closed written Q's but it is how long for a TT etc, ask the centre manager to discuss your paperwork with you, a second opinion can be asked for and in extreme cases he can over rule the assessor, (that aint gonna go down too well after it but, as the assessor should know what he is doing and if his boss over rules him it will pee him off) you made comments about the centre pushing you for resit money etc, this doesnt sound too professional, and as i said earlier there could be centres who fail people for money but their pass rate figures will show this, get them from their accreditation centre NOT them, why dont you go to another centre to sit your assessment to see how you get on, how much did they charge you for your resit, we charge £100 per day to come back in to finish/resit ACS after the alloted time has elapsed, and i have NEVER dragged out an assessment or failed someone to get extra money, but have failed a few people who i wouldn't send to work in my granny's.the theory being if you aint good enough to work in my granny's you aint good enough to work in anybodys granny's, NAME AND SHAME THE CENTRE I SAY, it wasnt mine so i aint got nothing to lose haha

 

[kirkgas]

he was suggesting i had taken one of there books ...which in my mind was a insult to my character .

no he wasnt he was politely asking you to check your bag to see if you had inadvertently lifted one of their books, I have asked candidates many times to check to see who has lifted one of my BS docs or IUP, and as i cant prove they were nicking it i always suggest it has been lifted by mistake

 

[gasmarc]

I agree name and shame and lets see who else has had the same issues. I cannot see a centre staying in business with that pass rate , I remember when i was doing mine years ago and a guy was asked to leave as he had not a clue how to purge a pipe

 

[kirkgas]

you say you did the assessment twice, and the second time you failed as you failed to recognise a lead pipe,, did you fail on this twice or spot it the first time, or what did you fail on the first time,

 

[kirkgas]

I agree name and shame and lets see who else has had the same issues. I cannot see a centre staying in business with that pass rate , I remember when i was doing mine years ago and a guy was asked to leave as he had not a clue how to purge a pipe

i referred a guy a few yrs ago who was trying to do a TT with no water in the manometer :-( he went away raging that we were too strict, haha, referred is the polite way of failing someone, technically you get referred as not yet competant, he was a working gas engineer who worked as part of a squad and his excuse was he never did the testing, we felt that strongly about him being dodgy we contacted CORGI to report him, as we felt he would simply go somewhere else and try his luck, and if he did at least we had flagged something up, didnt hear whether he did go somewhere else or not

 

[sal786]

you say you did the assessment twice, and the second time you failed as you failed to recognise a lead pipe,, did you fail on this twice or spot it the first time, or what did you fail on the first time,

The first time l failed the assessor said he could'nt tell me what i failed on because he said im assessing you not teaching you..i new i made a few mistakes with the flue flow test and testing safety controls and i didnt get to the lead pipe part which was the last question the first time round. The resit cost me 600 pounds which they said was a reduced price and 2 & 1/2 day refresher and one day practical ...

 

[Puddle]

After reading through thread,no name to try to shame please and those suggesting it should know better

Thank you

 

[mikimac]

Would it be unreasonable to ask sal786 which part of the country (maybe even narrowed down to postcode) the centre was located. The training centre I attended recently were brilliant in the Burgess Hill area of Sussex & the trainers professionalism was unquestionable.

 

[gasmarc]

I dont think it is unreasonable to name this training centre ,If the training is that bad I would want to know ,Wouldnt you ?
I am wondering has he got the right forum

 

[sal786]

I dont think it is unreasonable to name this training centre ,If the training is that bad I would want to know ,Wouldnt you ?
I am wondering has he got the right forum

The reason why l posted on here was i wanted to hear from existing gas safe engineers whether they have had similar experiance as me in their practical assesments ...l dont want to name the centre at the moment as im going to complain through their liasion officer.hopefully will take my acs again in the next few weeks at another centre.

 

[Gray0689]

Well I think from the responses that no there not i can't say if yours was not like that but from my own experience the centre I did mine was first class they where there to help not just fail you

 

[mikimac]

I'm with Gray0689 on that & all the gas engineers I know who trained at my centre have often said how tough certain parts might have been but that they were encouraged to reconsider answers to questions asked that might have been due to nerves etc. I personally am of the opinion that unless there were serious safety concerns over ability, the centre I attended was there to educate & assist all on my course. Maybe you have had the misfortune to get the rogue centre.

 

[sal786]

I'm with Gray0689 on that & all the gas engineers I know who trained at my centre have often said how tough certain parts might have been but that they were encouraged to reconsider answers to questions asked that might have been due to nerves etc. I personally am of the opinion that unless there were serious safety concerns over ability, the centre I attended was there to educate & assist all on my course. Maybe you have had the misfortune to get the rogue centre.

rogue centre just sums it up mikimac ....after paying thousands to do the training and exams feel ripped off and hard done by ...

 

[mikimac]

I don't know that letting slip with what part of the country your centre is would cause any harm (without actually naming) & you may well find that someone on here knows of them & can substantiate your claim. I'm damn sure if that if I was in your shoes & other people agreed that said centre was in fact out to rip people off I'd feel much happier with myself & my abilities & definitely more confident to pursue a claim against the centre.

 

[sparra1100]

in the center/collages i no of, they go out of there way to help you unless your dangerous or not safe they did with the people i went with, didnt give you the answers but wanted you to pass cos its your livelyhood so something must have been a miss mate cos everyone gets nervous in that kind of situation and they no it to fail once i can understand but twice says there not happy with you

 

[REDSAW]

rogue centre just sums it up mikimac ....after paying thousands to do the training and exams feel ripped off and hard done by ...

ang on!,
lets get this right first...

is this a first initial assesment or a acs re-sit?.
do you already hold your ccn1?.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

i read it as a resit of a first initial assessment

 

[Gray0689]

i read it as a resit of a first initial assessment

Me too

 

[Steve @ TheHeatingHub]

Just curious, How long was your initial training ?

 

[PlumbBobBob]

good question GG

 

[sal786]

good question GG

It was a four week gas foundation course to learn the basic's and l have been working along side a gas safe engineer for past year for the knowlegde and experience which has been priceless which im still doing .My initial assesment i was abit nervous made a few mistakes ...but second time round which I thought would be free but gave the money because I new I had no other choice .. I gave 110% memorised everything was focused and confident gave all the rite answers he didnt let me use no books on both assesments even tho its a open book assesment, which didnt realy bother me as l had remenbered alot and new what was expected any way.until the last question i was 1000% sure l had passed because l hadn't made no serious mistakes.

 

[bob the plumber]

It wasnt your ACS then?? it was a foundation course??

 

[REDSAW]

i really am not getting this.

you cant really fail your acs, you can fail the ccn1 which is core competancy (safe to work on gas).
at the least you pass the ccn1 and if nothing else, get cookers with it?.
your assesor must deem you incompetant and you must be messing up on something like controls (which is a biggie). forget the paper side, its not there to fail.
your assesor will not tell you what you failed on either as it is up to you to 'proove' you have what it takes to work on gas and that also includes how you carry yourself..
it is his job and reputation only to pass those who he thinks can provide the skills to do so.
i did not pass on fires as i cocked up on spillage testing having not done more than a handfull. this was left of and i gained the rest so obviously you are not there yet.imo.

 

[sparra1100]

i just wonder how they can fail you on not spotting a peice of lead pipe as theres nothing to say lead carnt be there if its in a safe condition and no leaks or drops it just says you carnt use it new or join on to it, in the regs so it must have been something else.in mine id lost the plot and couldnt even see straight and was saying and doing things i would never normally do and arguing with people i thought alot of ,but because they new i was safe and basically new what i was doing and they new that, i got through it cos they carnt take the risk of bye bye house so i really dont think you will get anywere complaining ad just get ye books out and do another 6 to 12 months and try again good luck to you hope it works out