What Does It Really Mean to Be a Pest Professional?

0:00 hello and welcome to best perspectives well not best perspectives actually but i thought i'd do a solo show um just my opinions on what i think so just to clear anything up whatever i say on this show it's my own opinion it is not the opinion is not the opinion of anyone I'm affiliated with. It's not the opinion of the MPTA or anyone, even open pest controllers. This is my own opinion on the industry. And this is episode one. And a topic I see coming up a lot is what does it really mean to be a pest professional?

0:49 Because there's been a lot of talk about it in general about what it means because you've got the basics you have there's a bare minimum due to what crew bought in that you can basically do a recent cycles which lasts five years and that allows you the ability to be able to buy bait or presented side in general from any pest supplier, because they now asked for your certificate. And that, what you have to do to get, well, obviously you just do the course in that case, there's no need to do CPD if you don't want to, there isn't, but also if your certificate has expired

1:43 past five years, because even if you do the RSPH level two award in person management that still expires now and if you have a trade body you have to do cpd anyway so if you've got cpd if you've this is different doing it doing it by myself i'll tell you if you've got a certificate that's run out and you need to do cpd you join a cpd provider like british pest register basis prompt if you move to bpsec bpca has got a version as well and then you have to do 20 points with three of them points being crew which all the courses are free for crew if you're not part of a trade body you can get training from kill germ it's it's on the website it's free of charge there's no need to pay for it there's whole people saying yeah well it's a bit of a racket it's a bit of a racket well no it's not really they're making 30 if you're just in basis prompt british press register whatever it is just 35 pounds i think about that and that's it crew mate there's no racket crew don't make any money for the courses and it's simply three hours of training per year to do it's based quite basic a lot of the courses are but this year they've introduced ones on redenticide resistance as well so but it's all interesting it is but that's what you got to do to get your cpd to get your crew certificate to buy

3:22 So technically you are supposed to be that is a pest professional. But in my opinion that not really a pest professional because when I started I only been in it six years so this is my own view I started out I done the kill germ rodent control course which it was online because I did it in in 2020 I also did the kill germ basic principles in insect control which is good too it was all online because it was due it was in that period of time but when i started to go on the tools that's really when you start to learn about how you actually do the job because not everything is textbook you all know that listening you all know that it's nothing is textbook because although you know how rats and mice operate there's so much more to it you can have so many there's just so many variations they can they don't all act like the textbook says they don't and a lot of it is down to pure experience a lot of it is you pick up over the time i'm a much better technician than i was six years ago six years ago it was much better but you pick things up over time you listen to others i get a lot of advice off pest control friends and you get support of a lot of people and you can learn off of us i learned a lot of my daddies he's who taught me but I don't think that makes you professional.

5:17 It is technically, but I think you should always be learning because every school, every day is a school day in reality. So along my journey, I'm not saying this makes you a pest professional, but a few years later, I decided to do my RSPH level 2 awarding pest management. And I failed first time, I passed the rodents first time, and then I had the invertebrates and legislation, which I missed by a few points, so I failed. It got me in cockroaches because I don't really do a lot of cockroaches. So second time round, I knew all about cockroaches, but they weren't in the exams.

6:01 So past that, I did, which makes you feel a lot better because it is the most recognised qualification in the industry at the end of the day. It's good to have on board, but I just think that you should be learning to a degree. can get it is so easy to get 20 points literally you can log cpd point or reading magazines

6:36 for podcasts or i i won't these opinion podcasts i won't be right locking these are cpd just so you know um there's a variety of things i mean as a business owner you can actually log log. If you're doing self register, you can log anything, anything that helps you improve your business. I do networking days where I've done learned about forecasting, things like I done a whole day on it I not an expert at it I get the basics of it Anything that does learning towards your business not just you as a pest controller but in this capacity we talking about a pest controller But in general, it all contributes to continuous professional development.

7:29 So I think you should always train him because we don't all know everything, we don't. and I know crew have upset a lot of people within the industry, obviously allowing someone to do a one-day course and to buy bait for five years. Yeah, I can see why. Now everyone was said, should there be licensing? Now, you've obviously got to appreciate that's a double-edged sword at the same time because although... this is what they would have to do in order for licensing to come on board so effectively they'd have to wipe out the domestic market which in reality we all know it's never going to happen these companies make quite a fair bit of money out the public and the hsc always wants there to be something if people can't provide afford pest control services so they can try it themselves so unfortunately i don't think it will ever happen but i am actually a fan of bringing in licensing within pest control i am uh rather than just having certificates and we keep rolling through with cpd and i i do like cpd because it's learning licensing will just make us a step up i think because when we look at other trades like electricians some gas engineers they get they get four of them they get thought of better as well uh they're like a step up and like they don't mind paying because like they're like when when you hire electrician or gas engineer like you look at under a pound minimum just just to turn up not doing the thing just to turn up so if they ever did get on a licensing route I'd be a fan of it but obviously you've got to be careful with licensing that it's done correctly but that's this is all my opinion it is I also believe being part of a trade body

9:45 whoever you wish to pick is also being more professional because you're showing a deeper commitment to the pest control industry pest management industry because customers although everyone thinks that now the customers don't care i think you'll find that customers are a bit more savvy these days and they do actually look at what you've got so our customers tell me that they've been looking they do look on your site they do look here they do look on google reviews isn't always the best uh way of knowing if a company's good but if you've got quite a few um google reviews it does help it does uh with your company but they do look at these things like like certain clients will look au dbs enhance which we are for our company but they look at that they look uh trust smart looks really good if you move on the trail but that another um professionalism you can show that yeah that the government endorse scheme I got it through the MPTA It all makes you look more professional I part of the British Molecatchers register also another thing that makes you look professional I do think that just being in no just doing a certificate isn't I'm sorry to tell you it isn't professional now you may not like that but this is just my view

11:12 it is at the end of the day uh i can't i can't appreciate why some companies don't want to be in a trade body and i think it's more a financial factor because say you've got i don't know four eight ten technicians in a trade body obviously you pay per person so it clearly works out more profitable to not be in a trade body so I can see that perspective but there's so much these trade bodies bring to the industry they've been they've been on the road days they've been forum days they've been basically like they go to entities and towns and you can have a day of training for free but a part is your membership they have a lot of online cpd courses you can do they have some of them have health and safety courses you can do that's also part of being professional that's what I do I do a lot of health and safety courses as well as part of the training and I think it all builds a picture to how you are trying to be professional and that's what I believe the whole it brings the whole package.

12:34 So in general, that's what I think. But what do you think? In general about that, you can tell me if I'm wrong or your opinion, but this is my personal opinion. It is. I'm not saying right, I'm not saying, you know, I'm just opening up a conversation. I hear on the online a lot. So yeah, let me know your thoughts, just a general little chat that was, but they're my thoughts on what it means to be a professional press controller and I am on board with licensing if it ever comes to fruition, but they need to remove the sale of renter's life for the public, which we all know is a high chance it may not happen.

13:23 It won't happen. There's lot of money to make but we'll see we will so if you like this video please a like share and subscribe if you're on spotify please leave a review hit the five stars on your apple please hit five stars if you're on facebook please press follow and let me know what you think this little podcast it's just uh just some thoughts from me it is and um yes thank you everyone and thanks to powered now for sponsoring the pest perspectives channel podcast um it's great of them they're a job management company uh job management software company um that can schedule your bookings diaries pest reports etc so there will be a link in the description after so um yeah thanks everyone and i'll see you on the next episode thanks everyone