TESP partners with JobsAware to tackle rogue trainers

The industry’s fight against ‘rogue trainers’ offering inadequate and unethical training packages has been boosted by a new partnership between The Electrotechnical Skills Partnership (TESP) and JobsAware, a government-backed organisation set up to prevent job scams and labour market abuses.

TESP’s Rogue Trainers campaign was launched in 2021 to warn against training providers who offer expensive packages that are not industry-recognised, targeting those wishing to retrain in skilled trades such as electrical work. High-pressure sales techniques are often used alongside a large financial commitment and loans, but often the training is low quality and does not live up to what was promised, leaving learners out of pocket and feeing desperate.

The TESP website has advice for those interested in becoming an electrician on the correct routes to becoming qualified, tips on choosing a training provider and the red flags to avoid. Since its launch, the Rogue Trainers advice has received over 20,000 views, and TESP is regularly contacted by those who signed up for a training package and qualifications they now realise are unattainable.

Through the new partnership TESP will continue to provide information and signpost individuals to report rogue trainers to JobsAware, who are well placed to take action and progress cases with the relevant authorities. Often, the training providers in question will repeatedly close down and set up businesses under different guises in order to avoid detection, an issue both partners are monitoring.

“We’re absolutely delighted to form this partnership with JobsAware who, like us, are campaigning against unscrupulous training providers,” says Ruth Devine, Chair of TESP. “Using its well-established links and history of tackling similar issues, we can continue to shine a light on bad practice and take action to stop these companies reinventing themselves, scamming people and harming lives.”

Keith Rosser, Chair of JobsAware, adds, “We’re really pleased to be working to tackle training provider scams with TESP. In recent years we’ve witnessed an unfortunate increase in the number of people contacting us with complaints about their training, and so our partnership with TESP will allow us to pool resources with the aim of addressing this problem head on.”