Technician qualifications

I had my first Top 10 IT Solutions for Small Business at Parramatta yesterday.

Given it was the first presentation I've done on the topic it went well, apart from the boring Powerpoint presentation.

During the Q&A one thing became very clear, a lot of small business owners are very frustrated with finding competent, reliable and trustworthy techs.

There's a lot of reasons for this, the main one is most computer techs are "technicians suffering a entrepreneurial spasm" as the E-myth writer Micheal Gerber puts it. When they find how tough this business can be their service, and possibly sanity, quickly suffers.

One area I think we have to look at is the licensing of computer techs. Just as motor mechanics, hair dressers and plumbers need to show they have a base level of skills, so to should computer technicians.

The base level should be the Certificate IV in IT Support. I'd like to see it coupled with a formal trainee or apprenticeship.

This won't get rid of all the dills and shonks, after all there are still some crook mechanics and plumbers out there, it will at least give some level of confidence among consumers and employers that a tech does have a base level of skills.