Softwash Course city & guilds

[Pjj]

Sit on the fence all you like but very soon you will have no choice but to attend the course or you won't be doing softwashing, if you do then you will be getting your collar felt by the H&SE and result in a heavy Fine.

Michael Conway only teaches using his bio products , he doesn’t use hypo so doing his course will not quality you to use hypo , from what I hear this guy is scaremongering trying to get people to do his course, there are dozens of bio products out there , he claims his product is 20 % stronger than anyone else’s stuff his maths is worse than mine ??? there are several products that are equal to his stuff and bio products do have there place but they arnt a cure all any more than hypo is each has its place and part in doing softwashing its a case of determining what system is best for a certain situation , most of my customers want an instant clean bio will not give you that fact , hypo will , there are some quote serious implications of using bio products have you read the mdsa data sheets for it ??? Have a read , many operators using it have severe respiratory problems along with throat problems all associated with bio use . Look on Michael conways web site it’s certainly not a professional company , very second rate . 

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Let you know how I get on today but I believe its money well spent.

 

[Incheck]

Michael Conway only teaches using his bio products , he doesn’t use hypo so doing his course will not quality you to use hypo , from what I hear this guy is scaremongering trying to get people to do his course, there are dozens of bio products out there , he claims his product is 20 % stronger than anyone else’s stuff his maths is worse than mine ??? there are several products that are equal to his stuff and bio products do have there place but they arnt a cure all any more than hypo is each has its place and part in doing softwashing its a case of determining what system is best for a certain situation , most of my customers want an instant clean bio will not give you that fact , hypo will , there are some quote serious implications of using bio products have you read the mdsa data sheets for it ??? Have a read , many operators using it have severe respiratory problems along with throat problems all associated with bio use . Look on Michael conways web site it’s certainly not a professional company , very second rate . 

This is the thing. What we have to bear in mind is that this is their livelihood, anyone with a financial interest is going to want to sway your mind to try and persuade people their way is the right way. Dont get me wrong, i dont want to say anybodies way is the wrong way, as regardless of how long it takes, if it works, it works. 

But i totally agree with you, it must be a hard sell trying to convince a customer that “this will work over a course of weeks or months” they do like instant results. Theres the issue of payment then. Do they pay once the treatment has been applied or when its clean? I can imagine if it still looks dirty they would get the jitters about handing it over.  if they did pay on completion, it would be in the back of my mind to keep that money aside just in case a refund was required and it didnt work over time. So bio products to me dont sound like glory. 

Every course is experience on your belt, and i think having some sort of accreditation in anything is a good thing (for one thing it looks good and shows you actually give a hoot, customers do like to see accreditations) so even if i come away with that from the course, then i feel i would have gained from it.

pjj do you have any experience with algoclear? Seen a few profesionnal companies using that stuff.

i’ll always keep an open mind, the more you know the better.

when you look at this forum, softwashing only really has a two year history, its still a relatively new thing and even though its gathering pace i feel it still has a long way to go. What i will say is 90% of the jobs done by people on here are all hypo jobs, not many people on here are talking about biocides. That says something to me -  contractors want to deliver instant results. 

One thing im really surprised that hasnt been mentioned at all is the potential for customers having rainwater harvesters. I wonder how many people check for them. If youre cleaning a roof or a garage roof and all your solution ends up in them, then the customer is inevitably going to put that on their plants at a later stage! Which could well prove disastrous!

 

[scottish cleaning service]

If 2 companies goes for a Soft Washing job and one has an Accredited City & Guilds in it then I know what one is getting the job. There is a simple reason to this. A decision maker needs an angle and can't be cornered. Say the one without the qualification gets the job because they are cheaper and the job goes wrong then the decision maker will take all of the blame and maybe lose their job for employing the wrong company. If it goes wrong with the qualified one then the decision maker can't be blamed because he followed protocol and they keep their job. That's the way I see it FWIW.

 

[THL4KEL]

Theres plenty of people that go on a week long plastering course and then buy a van and class themselves as a plastering business. Doesnt mean they can plaster.

A person that does a four year apprenticeship in plastering has a far superior knowledge due to the experience they have gained during the training. 

A couple of days training on something you have no experience off does not make you a competent person at whatever that two day course has covered. 

 

[Incheck]

Theres plenty of people that go on a week long plastering course and then buy a van and class themselves as a plastering business. Doesnt mean they can plaster.

A person that does a four year apprenticeship in plastering has a far superior knowledge due to the experience they have gained during the training. 

A couple of days training on something you have no experience off does not make you a competent person at whatever that two day course has covered. 

I agree. I always regretted doing my gas through fast track, i was fine with plumbing but when i went to do gas through a 6 month fast track thing i was nowhere near competent even though i was qualified. The company i was working for disagreed

“you’ve got the paperwork, therefore you’re competent”

i knew the theory inside & out but didn’t have near enough time served working on gas. I installed & commissioned about 10 boilers, done a few cookers and a couple of gas fires, passed my ACS after about 6 months and that was that, i was out in the real world. 

When i started working for a company I said look ive just qualified but not the most confident, i need to be with someone whos been at it a good 10 or 15 years until i find my feet,

but that didnt happen, they sent me out with an apprentice usually. I was taking 4 hours to do 2 hour jobs, couldn't keep up with the pace of work, was constantly on the phone to other engineers asking for advice and help. It didn't end well. I quit through fear of messing up a gas job and ending up in prison. A few engineers have gone to prison for involuntary manslaughter, one was a well respected bloke who'd been at it 20 years, everyone in the town used him. He made a mistake one day and didnt screw the flue on to a boiler correctly and ended up killing a 14 year old girl and her dog because she got carbon monoxide Poisoning. 3 years i think his sentence was. 

same for electricians you can do a fast track course for part P and you’re a qualified electrician all of a sudden.

These fast track courses should be banned theyre a waste of money, time, and a danger to the public in my opinion. 

 

[THL4KEL]

Attending a Softwash course in Glasgow on Monday & Tuesday (£490) achieve a City & Guilds Certificate at the end. Good for the website and my health & safety. 

Scotch, Just looking at City and Guilds web site, I cant find the course do you have a course code for it? Is it a full course or just a unit of competency I.e. one subject part of a full qualification? 

 

[Iron Giant]

Upon completion of the course you are awarded a City & Guilds Digital Credential it's not a C & G course it's a course by Softwash Solutions and a chap called Michael Conway it's his course, just a google or FB search and you will see. He is obviously wanting to ensure some regulation and professional training is brought to the industry which can only be a good thing were chemicals are involved 

 

[THL4KEL]

So looking at what a digital credential is, you could not say you to a customer you are City and Guilds qualified in Softwashing, but you do have a City and Guilds skill in it..

 

[Pjj]

Upon completion of the course you are awarded a City & Guilds Digital Credential it's not a C & G course it's a course by Softwash Solutions and a chap called Michael Conway it's his course, just a google or FB search and you will see. He is obviously wanting to ensure some regulation and professional training is brought to the industry which can only be a good thing were chemicals are involved 

Problem is his course is only for bio products , so you still couldn’t use hypo , he is dead against hypo and tries to demonise anyone who uses it , I didn’t realise it was him doing the training course , he’s another solar Steve if you don’t do it my way and my course you are all going to die ???? the clue about this guy is the beginning part of his surname CONway , I totaly agree training is important and am all for it , it might stop some cowboys trouble is like everything who will police it ???   HSE will only be interested after there has been an accident they won’t be interested in joe bloggs in the outer Hebrides using a bit of hypo , and making sure they have some sort of qualification, I have had a lot to do with the HSE with my role in the Fireservice over the years , like all other departments they are over stretched and will only deal with death or near death situations , so I very much doubt we will see anything major happen for a long time , I hope Ime proved wrong 

 

[Iron Giant]

Problem is his course is only for bio products , so you still couldn’t use hypo , he is dead against hypo and tries to demonise anyone who uses it , I didn’t realise it was him doing the training course , he’s another solar Steve if you don’t do it my way and my course you are all going to die ???? the clue about this guy is the beginning part of his surname CONway , I totaly agree training is important and am all for it , it might stop some cowboys trouble is like everything who will police it ???   HSE will only be interested after there has been an accident they won’t be interested in joe bloggs in the outer Hebrides using a bit of hypo , and making sure they have some sort of qualification, I have had a lot to do with the HSE with my role in the Fireservice over the years , like all other departments they are over stretched and will only deal with death or near death situations , so I very much doubt we will see anything major happen for a long time , I hope Ime proved wrong 

After I wrote my reply Solar Steve popped into my head ?

 

[Pjj]

After I wrote my reply Solar Steve popped into my head ?

Lol must have been a nightmare ????

 

[Incheck]

As a newcomer to softwashing i am interested to see what the course entails. I’m interested to see what bio products they talk about, what results they give, and how long they take to work. Even if it doesnt turn out to be what i was hoping it to be, its life experience for me and in any industry i think sometimes you just have to go through the motions to gain a broader knowledge and never accept you know it all as we are always learning in life. As pjj has said, self taught for ten years and still learning

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Scotch, Just looking at City and Guilds web site, I cant find the course do you have a course code for it? Is it a full course or just a unit of competency I.e. one subject part of a full qualification? 

Only 10 professional softwash technicians in the UK now and I'm one of them as we all passed. Regarding the course code, it says

STS22/02/2019

 

[Pjj]

Only 10 professional softwash technicians in the UK now and I'm one of them as we all passed. Regarding the course code, it says

STS22/02/2019

View attachment 16239

Well done it’s always good to get training , but why is there only 10 in the uk that are qualified he has been running these courses for several years ??? What did you do on the course with regards to hypo ??? Anything constructive or just him on a rant ??? I think where all theses courses fail is they only cover one aspect either the use of hypo or biocides , you cannot do one course to cover you for both , other companies do training courses where you become an approved contractor , but it’s still only hypo not bio products that you are authorised and qualified to use , we use both bio and hypo depending on the job and customers requests , this subject is still in its infancy in this country the Americans are missing a trick they should have the training courses sign up by now as they have been doing it for well over 40 years , what did you do on the course ?? Classroom only or some practical stuff as well ? What’s the time scale for the cleaning effect to happen ? 

 

[Pjj]

Just looking at the certificate number it appears to be a date ???  22/02/2019.  None of my c& g certificates have a date for the cert no ?.. unless it’s all changed ??? I have a friend who works for c& g he writes all there exam papers and training courses in the uk for  carpentry I’ll ask him about it all . 

 

[scottish cleaning service]

You are only meant to use a little hypo but the UK are obsessed with it and the makers love selling it. Reminds me of the opiate crisis in the US. Anyhow, I am only going to give one piece of advice and that is, get yourself on the course. It will be the best £490 you have ever spent and you can always go back to the booklet or email Michael Conway. He will be setting up a technician forum where all the course guys can chat about it. :1f609:

 

[THL4KEL]

Were the other 9 learners on the course with you Scottish?

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Some had P1 and P6, some new him from a course 3 years ago. A guy came all the way from Yorkshire, he did steam cleaning which is used and new to me. One was Dan Dan the gardening man as I called him because his name was Dan and he had his own gardening business. Think there was 4 window cleaners including me who wanted to branch out into softwashing. I am mainly into PW which I had to do yesterday and today after the course because the job was near the course. Turned out the guy wanted grey easy-joint to fill the patio joints which had broke away on half the patio. After I PW it we both found out that the joints were pink and he wasn't a happy camper. I had to bolster the old mortar and fill the whole patio with the new grey stuff and there was no mention of extra money. You live and learn but I will be PW a test patch in future to see what colour it is. This time it didn't matter because I don't think you can buy pink mortar unless you put a dye through it. Happy 2 days I have just had, getting home at 9.30pm both nights, 490 lighter and 550 heavier from the PW job.

 

[Part Timer]

Not a huge fan of time limited certification, except medical, IPAF, etc. Sounds like a money making scheme rather than a safety scheme. 

 

[Pjj]

Not a huge fan of time limited certification, except medical, IPAF, etc. Sounds like a money making scheme rather than a safety scheme. 

Its a fake certificate  cannot say any more at the moment , but it’s being dealt with ??? this guys training might be ok ????? I don’t know but will give him the benefit of the doubt , but his certs arnt