October 21, 2022Hatten Education has received a potential setback as a provider of NCRQ’s now-defunct suite of learning.
The awarding body and assessment organisation, AIM Qualifications, has declined to give Hatten a permit to deliver the level 6 certificate for existing students.
Hatten revealed the decision in a statement on its website which has now been removed. The statement also advised students to contact IOSH for further clarity.
With Hatten seemingly out of the race, training provider Phoenix Health and Safety, today (21 October) announced they were in discussions with stakeholders regarding a way forward. A statement on its website read: “We have been inundated with enquiries from NCRQ students asking how they will be able to complete their studies, or transfer to an equivalent qualification from another awarding body. We’re working with our partners in the Health & Safety training industry to come up with a solution.”
The news coming out of Hatten will come as a major blow to those left stranded in their studies, with many uncertain about how to take their learning forward.
Laura Aucott, Associate Director at HSE Recruitment and Executive Network Group, in a LinkedIn post sharing Hatton’s statement, summed up the mood: “I’m so sorry for any students affected by this…This will have a massive impact on thousands of professionals and the industry as a whole and I think a lot of us are just in shock at what has happened.”
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Sickening politics from all the bodies involved. I didn’t take the NCRQ Diploma but nearly did. Thankfully I went another route. I think it’s about time we took the power out of Academia and Industry Bodies, and made the relevant government agencies the sole authority on recognition and accreditation of qualifications. That way nobody sues anyone, and nobody claims bankruptcy, and the people who really matter (the learners) get put first. It’s not good enough from any of the bodies involved in terms of response so far. It’s an absolute disgrace in my humble opinion.
I am retired and qualified through through NEBOSH exams. I undertook this though distant learning with help from H&S colleagues.
I Had to look up NCRQ. From Wiki
“NCRQ (National Compliance and Risk Qualifications) is a qualifications awarding organisation based in Chester. It develops and delivers qualifications in occupational health and safety. It was formed by a collaboration between some of the largest employers in the UK and EU (such as the BBC, Royal Mail and Siemens plc), together with senior officers of the Health and Safety Executive, academics and barristers.[3] It is headed by the former Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive, Geoffrey Podger CB.“
Obviously not enough largess from major employers and if you have been a Chief Executive of the HSE you know all about qualifications and training
I was a member of IOSH for over 30 years but quit this year, all they are interested in is subscription fees, from anywhere in the world. I was even receiving emails reminding me to pay, from a person no longer working for IOSH, “computer says”. CEO gets circa £120,000 to attempt to run the organisation.
I was 2/3rd’s of the way through the diploma, I am disgusted at both the way it was handled and the lack of real communication from anyone. It seems as though this is a battle for Who holds all the cards while the learners are the ones who are left in limbo, having paid thousands of pounds for a qualification that now no one really knows if we will ever be able to complete. My own path to chartered is now on hold.
I’m in exactly the same boat, I logged on to request my 2nd assessment and the website was “under maintenance”. the next day the email came out saying they couldn’t complete the course.
Same here Paul. Logged on to book my validation interview after finishing the 2nd module.. and all it said was they are unable to offer the qualification at this time. My head started spinning. When we received the news from Hatten I was hopeful I could finish without too much of a set back. Time is of the essence for me as my husband is the only one working right now. We thought, ok a few weeks, we can do that. Now it’s indefinite? Will another platform pick up us lost NCRQ students? Will we have to pay more money? Will all the time and effort I spent have gone to waste? I’m devastated, lost, confused…
I had just submitted my final assignment, and was a week away from getting my result, I picked NCRQ as it had a route to GRADIOSH, I feel all of this has devalued the NCRQ Diploma, I have contacted Hatten (Which rumour has it is owned by the same person who owns NCRQ) and have received no reply about my assignment, in some ways I wish I went for the NVQ, if this mess doesn’t get resolved the NVQ is where I could end up….of course it isn’t free. I really enjoyed the NCRQ, the way it was structured, and written was great, this is a great shame
Its not a rumour, all the information is publicly available and been discussed at great length on linkedin. Hopefully AIM gets something organised so you can finish your studies.
Ditto, I cannot express how completely distraught I am over this. My continuing job role depends on this qualification, and I am 3 years into the diploma with only 1.5 modules to complete. I am not good at examinations as the stress puts me over the edge so always avoided NEBOSH after I did the general and fire certs. My friend did an NCRQ and loved it; recommended it to me and I was slowly working through this at my own pace whilst holding down a career and young family. I am at my wits end with this and £2k down with a certificate worth nothing to no one and my professional organisation (IOSH) appear to be co-conspirators in the making of this crisis.
I thought you only had 3 years to complete the NCRQ diploma as part of their T&Cs? 3 years to complete HSD1 and half of HSD2 sounds like an awfully long time, and your role cant depend on it that much or surely you would have completed it long before now?
If I remember correctly, the time limits are (or rather, were) regarding how long you could take within the normal course price. If you needed to take longer than this, you could for a fee (I can’t remember how much exactly – not a trivial fee, but not an unreasonable one).
Why are you disputing this colleague’s experience and his opinion on how important this qualification is to his career?! Qualifications usually have some flexibility or ‘study breaks’ available to enable students with major life commitments to fit their studies in. I myself did an MSc which was due to take 3 years. It started the same month as my first child was born and I couldn’t go near the course materials for 3-4 months. Our 2nd child was born whilst I was still studying and working full time. I maxed out the study breaks allowed by the university. This colleague is holding down a career and looking after a young family. He is obviously distraught at the situation and deserves support and sympathy rather than negative sniping from people who should know better!
Thanks for your apparent interest in my career and level of scrutiny that you have to my study commitments; its so refreshing to be told that I’m living my life incorrectly by a fellow ‘professional’. Just to set your mind at ease, there was a time limit of 18 months per unit for the NCRQ and as there are 3 units and as I have a very busy career and very busy family life, I working through it at my own pace; that was the selling point of the whole diploma. If I would have known that the rug would be pulled by a load of H&S political infighting then I probably would have steered clear.
All learners and current Chartered Members of IOSH and similar organisations need to have each others’ backs on this and vote with their feet. It’s an absolute disgrace that academia and industry bodies can stitch people up so badly. No doubt people need this step-up to Chartered Membership for promotions and so on, and so that is difficult to accept on any level, as personal and professional development, pay rises, etc, may all be riding on this.
Nothing to do with academia.
What a ridiculous situation to be in. Making safety political and damaging and look as trustworthy as a government back hander.
Unfortunately, asong as IOSH remain as the chartered body for safety professionals then safety will alway be political… The damage IOSH is doing to the profession has become almost unbearable to watch.
Am very pleased I did the old NEBOSH exam with the 4 Units (3 very hard exams and 1 Paper). I teach Diploma and the NCRQ is not the quality of the old one. We should go back to how it was and not this so called easy one. If you want a Diploma then you need to work and work hard to get this top qualification.
From someone who has completed both, NCRQ is not easy. Everyone has different learning styles. I actually learnt more from the NCRQ Diploma about ‘real’ Health and Safety. The problem with NEBOSH, is it still relies on buzzword bingo. It is a shame that NCRQ has folded as it broke the mould with how H&S training is delivered. There is a reason why NEBOSH have gone down a similar route…..
If you believe the new NEBOSH OBE’s are easy to pass then I certainly wouldn’t want to be attending one of your courses as a delegate!
Mr Doe my current first-time pass rate for the OBE’s is just under 80% and that is not only for the Ul as I also teach overseas.
If you re read what I was talking about, I was not talking about NG OBE’s but the Diploma!
As I said before if you want a qualification you need to work hard.
A couple of thousand pounds invested. Hundreds of hours. Two/thirds of the way through the diploma and nothing to show for it.
If this qualification is in “limbo” can we claim our money back if we can’t access this qualification.
We should all care about health and safety. Politics between organisations should be left at the door. We now have many people who are unable to achieve their potential in health and safety because of “Managing Safely”.
It should be remembered there are people who are very good at their job but, cannot take pass an exam to save their life, I was one of those. NCRQ is a great way of learning and helped me greatly. An institution that is chartered to support health and safety wipe out a very good training system, over a couple of words is a shame.
If anyone out there paid for this on a credit card (not debit), then you can hopefully claim a refund from the credit card company under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. (Just another learner, not a lawyer etc.)
I hope some other provider works out a way to inherit the list of learners from NCRQ and the AIM allow some continuity. But right now, whatever else happens, NCRQ no longer exist and will not be delivering the qual. It doesn’t seem premature to start looking to get the money back that was paid to them.
I had just completed my final assignment for HSD3, 151 pages long, 45,297 words only to discover I could not upload the assignment. Thought everything would be fine through Hatten Education, as they made out that everything would be transferred over by the 31st of October. Now that turns out to be incorrect. I have now given my details to Phoenix. This is shocking. Does anybody actually know what happened to NCRQ, no explanation has ever been given to myself.
NCRQ were taken to court by IOSH over a trademark infringment. They lost and had to pay over £100,000 in costs which wiped their bank account out and so couldn’t funtion as a company.
How did you give your details to Phoenix? Are they taking over Hatten?
This whole debacle is a shameful episode in the history of H&S professional development and in particular in the behaviour of some of the key organisations involved. IOSH must surely have been aware of the likely impact on many of its own members that the court case would have if it effectively wiped out one of the main training providers. I don’t know enough about the rights and wrongs of the case, but the court made its decision and the damage is done. I call on IOSH to consider the hugely negative impact on NCRQ learners, many of whom are IOSH members, and actively support transition to alternative provision, with accreditation of prior learning. There is an ethical responsibility here, not least towards protecting the mental wellbeing of those affected.