Not got the house yet! My mrs has been helping out at the school for years - she is also involved in security work with her job. The school suddenly realised she had no crb check so she was instantly banned from the shool trips etc untill the check was done.
The fact that they are non-transferrable is a joke. Obviously thought up by some jobsworth as a way of boosting revenue to whoever charges for it.
Reading through this thread has made me angry that we live in such a crap society that thinks bits of paper are the way forward. 
As for NVQ's - don't start me on that but having witnessed someone pass one who could barely read or write made me realise what a load of toss his piece of paper was. :
(and that was far more advanced than any window cleaning certificate)
FTP does it mean just because a guy can barely read or write make you any better than him doing a manual job ?? maybe he can not read or write but he clearly has a good understanding how to move his business forward, this maybe something you really should think about before making insulting comments.
And just because this said person can barely read or write does not in anyway mean the nvq is a load of toss.
Feel better now 
Ian
I don't think you understood the post. The NVQ I witnessed was in the print trade. A trade where I had to do a seven year apprenticeship no less! The NVQ system was brought in to replace apprenticeships. This enabled numpties like the guy I mentioned to pass an NVQ simply because he got someone else to fill it out for him (the training officer). Once they had the first guy through all the other trainees throughout the years simply copied all the coursework - just changing the name on the file.
One guy didn't even bother to copy the work but handed last years file in with his name on top and surprise surprise even managed to get better marks.
Maybe you can explain to me why a poorly educated person should be entitled to earn the same money and be called a craftsman when he clearly wasn't up to the job? Why do you send your kids to school?
An NVQ that can be completed in a matter of days is hardly an achievment is it?
Ok you want me to explain why a poorly educated person should be entitled to earn the same:
ok here goes maybe boring for other readers and I have to say sorry for that: This is about me by the way I am what you would class as poorly educated though it is not really my fault as I was eger to learn. I was a kid I was ill i had cancer i missed quite a bit of school, back then not was it out of school sat doing errm sod all bored out of my brians, I then go back to school I am put in top set of maths becxause I was very good with numbers, I then move school, I got down graded from top set because I was not very good at english spelling and grammer (I had not been at school d'oh, and these so called clever people are educated aswell :
)
so me at school became boring maths was far to easy I did a l;essons work within mins of class starting and got bored, bored kids get in trouble because they are bored! so I then got in more trouble for speaking up for myself and asking to go up to a class so I could learn something (these educated people did not like to be told by someone clearly brighter than them that they was learning nothing because they had put me in a class where I already new all the answers because I had already learnt the stuff being in a top set of maths is not rocket science................ :
Anyway that was maths (guess you can see that annoys me, to english i WAS SO FAR BEHIND i JUST DIDNT HAVE A CLUE WHAT TO DO i ASKED FOR HELP, I got told off for disrupting the lesson and sent out, all because I was ill had to take time of through no fault of my own. And no I get punished for it and my education suffers because of it, unfair I thought. I ecel in woodwork and so much wanted to be a boat builder I didnt need english that much, maths I did but I was good at this so instead of being bored I learnt about boats wood and making things, Then I get my arm caught in a metal centre Lathe making an ancor for my boat, this kept me off of school for near on a year, my arm was mangelled (wrapped around a metal pole 4 times, cracking I thought, sorry have to laugh) when I went back to school I was even futher was behind on english, and at this point I told myself school is not for me, this was in no way my fault, and why should this hold me back. TBH I want to learn english now on my terms but be spoken to with respect that teachers back then clearly did not have.
I should be entitled to earn more for the crap schooling I got, not less
I do earn more than my teachers, I did that at 20 years old, and they are so called educated :
I have nvq's in cooking, management, plumbing, also city and guilds in plumbing and NVQ in WINDOW CLEANING and I am proud to say it,
jealousy is an ugly thing
Ian
Sorry for the part life story just tends to annoy me about school..and education