Gas Safety Registration – Accredited Certification Scheme

You are gung-ho to get on with your career and get qualified as a Gas Safe Engineer, but you have just found out that certain requirements have to be fulfilled before you can proceed further. This type of requirement in the Domestic Gas arena is the same as you find in any other profession; EXPERIENCE!. So to get  ACS gas training you ought to have experience before they will give you a chance and all of your experience should be gas related.

Are you beginning to see the picture? You want to move up to the next level, but are being bogged down by a lack of experience. All the ACS gas training centers want you to produce a portfolio or flog book detailing your experience. This body of evidence has to have been compiled while working under the direction of a Gas Safe Registered Engineer.

This Portfolio is actually your key to opening the doors for your entry into the ACS Gas safe Registration course. Without this you will never begin the classes or get certified. So yes, it is a pretty big deal. If you already hold certification in the related NVQ2 and NVQ3 you will only need 70 days of field experience. If you are like most people seeking entrance into this phase of the business, this is a career change for you, and you may not have any related experience.

Most of the places that offer ACS gas training courses fail to properly stress the necessity for obtaining this body of work portfolio. They do not let you know up front that you have to have this much field based experience before you will be considered for certification. It is listed on their website but most often it is the fine print at the bottom of the page. They regale you with possible future earnings and how their courses will get you there but fail to put that in the “Big Red Letters”.  They do not share this because then they would have to tell you that it is the absolute hardest part of trying to obtain the ultimate certification.

If you have the brains, you can pass the courses they are offering, but unless you have a friend or relative who is already an ACS Registered it is going to be very hard to get this experience. Finding someone with the proper credentials to take you on is going to be next to impossible.

So what do we do now?  Look for gas training centres that offer Practical training and portfolio building on site experience in the gas industry, work with them for 140 days and have their Gas Safe Registered Engineer sign on each job including comments and their certification number.
Take the prerequisite courses from such a training center that offers hands on training since this will count as experience.  The type training you already have will definitely impact your likelihood of being taken on as an apprentice in gas work. Make no mistake you have to have the 140 days first to get the Gas Safe registration that will open up the best jobs  to you.