Mark I total agree but this is a bit of a floor with MCS and i have used a slightly different reasoning below, what are your thoughts on this.
You are an electrical engineer with 10 years on site experience and you have installed every different type of standard electrical domestic and commercial system and one of your client comes to you to fit his new PV system but he asks do you have MCS. So you read up on it and you know you have your 17th and part P and you put yourself on the necessary course's to ensure you fully understand how to design and calculate the system.
You now have all this in place but your customer wont let you on his house because you do not have MCS but you know without a doubt that you could do it with your hands behind you back. But you do not have an installation to show to complete your assesment
Should the fact that you don't have £5k in the bank to buy a PV system and put it on you house mean that you should not be allowed to get into MCS???? or is it such a bad thing that a mate of yours lets you use his installation which you walk around pointing out any areas required by the assessor e.g labelling isolation etc. And you have at this point shown your 17th certificate along with you manual handling and working at heights and you have been signed of under test conditions that you can do the electrical work during your 17th edition assessment.
I completely agree that using someone else's installation is morally wrong but it is a possibility that people will be forced into especially as the requirement to take a punt on someone who is not MCS accredited becomes less and less. I would much prefer the steering group behind MCS to introduce a UKAS accredited testing facility based solely on the installation with manufactured fault to rectify and on site common issue that will occur from time to time (replacing
tiles etc) to ensure competency
This is the only way the number of MCS accredited PV installers will grow in my opinion.
As always your thoughts are appreciated.