The Confederation of Aerial Industries Ltd is very proud to be celebrating its 30th year in early 2008. Established in February 1978, the Confederation has grown from strength to strength, and over the years the role of the CAI has developed into a nationally recognised organisation and encompasses all aspects of regulation and training for the industry. In the past 30 years the CAI have been integral to all new developments, and this has been especially true where the process of changing the nation to digital has occurred. In conjunction with the broadcasters and the DTI, the Confederation is putting a huge amount of effort into the technical aspect of both reception, including cable and aerial benchmarking, and training which are tailored courses aimed specifically at the reception of digital terrestrial. The CAI is determined that all members have the necessary knowledge and skills to cope with the new digital requirements and members’ customers should be reassured that they are in the hands of fully trained and informed professionals. This we feel confident will lead us through the next 30 years and beyond.
The past year has been a very exciting one for the Confederation of Aerial Industries. Unbelievably over a year has past since the inception of our CAI plus scheme, which as many readers will know was launched to create a higher membership category than already exists to allow all of our 10,000+ engineers to gain recognition as qualified digital installers as part of our initiative regarding the digital switchover. We are really pleased to report that we now have a staggering 320 CAI member companies who are plus members, that equates to 768 individual engineers, with more joining all the time. Obviously with increasing numbers of members joining the plus scheme, we have further demands on our staff both administratively and throughout the entire assessment process, so we have recruited another assessment officer who commenced employment with the CAI in June 2008.
We are now able to offer CAI plus ID cards. The cards have been designed to clearly show the photograph of the engineer, with CAI membership number and issue date and expiry. The CAI plus engineer is advised to carry their card with them on all installations as it is evidence that the bearer of the card has not only proven competence and has public liability insurance cover, but in addition, CAI plus members have verified safe working practices and satisfactory criminal records checks.
As well as growth in the CAI plus scheme, we are also pleased to report that CAI membership is also growing at an incredible rate. So much so, that we have needed to re-write our Articles of Association, which has meant changing our membership numbers to 2000! This means changing our entire constitution to be able to accept the higher membership numbers. We can positively report that we hit the1000 member’s mark at the end of 2007.
The purchase of 41a Market Street has also been integral to our overall expansion and growth. Of course the jewel in the crown in moving to Watford is that for the very first time we can now offer training courses from our own premises. This has been a huge investment, as we now boast brand new facilities offering state of the art equipment bridging the gap where education and skills development were difficult to develop. The CAI trains on average, over 600 engineers each year across its wide curriculum of courses. For systems engineers an intensive distance-learning course that takes around 7 months to complete, and has a student intake of around 25 candidates. This course is certified by City & Guilds. The industry’s very own NVQ is building in numbers gradually. Nationwide around 100 engineers have attained a Level 2 in Signal Reception and the CAI has its own pilot scheme running in partnership with North Herts College with 27 students enrolled.
The CAI have also witnessed amazing growth where our website is concerned. Over the past 12 months the CAI website has averaged over 30,700 hits per week, and on September 12th of last year the site had its 4 millionth hit since 22nd June 2004, proof that the CAI website is a really valuable tool.