SIA Deadline

Newbie Joined: Sep 20, 2005 Posts: 10

The SIA have now said that applications made after October 31st are not guaranteed to be with officer for the March 20th deadline. I am not to concerned about our staff as all our applications should be in by the end of next week.

However I am concerned about the state this leaves recruitment throughout the industry in.

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:02 pm

Wow, they must be expecting quite a late influx of applcations.

Newbie Joined: Sep 20, 2005 Posts: 10

John if you have a look at the last update download on the SIA website, they pretty much slate the industry for not carrying licencing through correctly.

I think we are all in for a rocky few months.

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:02 am

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:19 am

That makes interesting reading indeed!
They claim that as of 30th September that they had only recieved 13,500 license applications yet the figures on their website show that as of 2 days before that, they had actually recieved 14,692 applications.

The same with the number of qualified people - they claim 51,000 are qualified yet their website from 2 days before shows only 44,729 - but I suppose it is entirely possible that 6,271 individuals qualified on those 2 days.

I would agree with them though that more companies should have put through the agreed number of license applications per month but this is one heck of a lot of money we are talking about here.

I think when that bow-wave comes, it will hit like a hurricane!

They have missed one item of their list of 'errors' which not everyone is aware of - if you send too many documents (as my wife did) the applications fails. So although there were various options on what documnetation you could send for identification purposes, she sent them ALL and got rejected - how does that make any kind of sense?

Newbie Joined: Sep 20, 2005 Posts: 10

I agree John, it is interesting reading. My main concern is now however bringing new people into the industry if this October 31st deadline is correct.

At the moment we wait around 2 to 3 weeks for the certificates to be returned to us and sometimes it can take up to 5 weeks. So doing the basic maths we will not be able to recruit someone new or who needs training into our company after this week. We all know the turnover of staff and I have already seen licenced staff poached away for higher pay rates. Worrying times...

Newbie Joined: Nov 08, 2004 Posts: 11 Location: Devon

Hi Trainer,

Are you still having to wait a long time for the cert turn around ??? I got some the other day which i did the week before at our last Comp meeting they were talking of a 2 day turnaround on the certs ???

Can SITO...sorry steps, do anything in two days ???

Newbie Joined: Nov 08, 2004 Posts: 11 Location: Devon

Well the date is nearly here, lets se how the SIA go this lot !!

Number of qualified people
97,958

Applications on system
57,303

Licences granted
31,310

Licences refused
456

Looks like they will give a bit of leeway with Companies that have made a effort towards the whole thing, proberly they will go around the companies not in the top twenty !! of the Industry

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2006 12:53 am

Yes, worrying times indeed.
I am still left wondering if there will be any last minute reprieve for those still waiting for the license to be processed but I know of one leading company who is having major problems due to their training manager not following through on training certification.
The result of this meaning that quite a few who had thought they had passed their training hadn't and a large number of individuals still await their certificates as the training manager concerned never bothered to obtain them after the training course - he doesn't work for this company any more!

Newbie Joined: Nov 08, 2004 Posts: 11 Location: Devon

Now that is very bad on his part and SITO'S part for not chasing up the batches, cause at the end of the day SITO want payment for the papers used etc !!!

I think we will get a last minute reprive up to this September, but if they let the cat out of the bag all the companies will hold back again !!!

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 3

John, I think the SIA have made it clear there will be no extension to the deadline and in fairness to the SIA, the industry has know for long enough that licencing would start on March 20th.

Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:48 pm

HR - Yes I would agree.
The industry has known for long enough to get it's act together.
From what I'm hearing, due to the deluge of last minute applications, the processing time has gone from 4-6 weeks to 3 months so the next update from the SIA will be interesting indeed.

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 3

Vert interesting indeed John, lets hope there is an industry left after March 20th.