This year we’ve introduced some big changes to MOT training. They’re intended to improve testing standards and consistency across the industry. They’ll help to make sure that the work you do is making an even greater contribution to road and vehicle safety. So what’s been introduced?
New MOT qualifications
We’ve worked with the sector skills council for the automotive industry to develop new nationally recognised qualifications for both MOT testers and managers.
The new MOT testers’ qualification covers standards and procedures including safe working practices and professional development. It also looks at working relationships – including how to deal with customers who don’t understand why their vehicle’s failed its MOT.
The MOT managers’ course not only looks at MOT legislation and compliance, but now also covers quality systems and audits, developing and supervising staff and customer service.
These new qualifications will raise standards by providing new testers and managers with a recognised qualification and transferable skills. We’ve also removed the need for MOT testers to be nominated. This will allow a wider group of mechanics to become MOT testers.
Annual training and assessment
As we said earlier this year, the old 5-year refresher course has been replaced with MOT annual training and an assessment.
To make sure your training stays up to date we’ll set new training topics every year. The topics will be based on the latest tester error rates and will make sure that training focuses on topics that testers are more likely to get wrong.
Rather than having to sit in a classroom once every 5 years, this new training model gives you the choice and flexibility to do your training in a way that suits you. You can do it at work, at home, by yourself, or with colleagues. If you prefer, you can go on a course offered by a training provider.
You just need to make sure that you complete and record at least 3 hours of training every year before booking your assessment.
To help you record your training we’ve put together a template that you can use. You just need to add the training you complete throughout the year.
Find out more
Find out more about taking MOT tester annual training and assessments, including how to carry out your training, record it and book your assessment.
40 comments
Comment by Stephen posted on
How about not loosing a day, on the new MOT. We carry out 1st MOT's with an expiry date of September 01st. When new VT20 printed vehicle expires on August 31st. Customers are loosing out.
Comment by Henry posted on
Hiya, been abroad for 10 months so trying to catch up on all the latest "improvements" and check what I need to do to get up to date & get testing again.
Special notice 05-16 states that the tester must complete an annual assessment for each group they test in
"class 1 and 2 vehicles (group A)
class 3, 4, 5 and 7 vehicles (group B)"
Does this now mean that everyone (admittedly probably a small %age of NTs) who previously could only test class 4 or class 7 can now test 4 & 7?
Comment by vim sudra posted on
nice to read all above comments i think its about time dvsa or vosa kept an eye on al testing stations as to what they charge ive recently gone past some stations and the big board outside displaying mots only 15 pounds how the hell can they make any profits? beats me shambles at my previous place i had a site visit by an arrogant ve told me to get rid of my 10days free retest sign board its all beyond me what next i wonder?
Comment by Stoks posted on
You expect testers to keep up to date train and pass an assessment but dvsa cant even get the assessment questions written accurately .
Comment by John posted on
Can I respectfully suggest that the authors of the new assessment test take a closer look at the set questions . They may wish to incorporate the 03-16 special notice changes and perhaps check the drivers view to the rear questions are correct also!!
Comment by Raj k Thapar posted on
The damage to the integrity of the testing standards are still being undermined namely , changing the system norms every 5 minutes is very tedious to digest , in our opinion DVSA are trying and error ing everything , still not sure what system needs to be put in place ? While the whole world talks about economy and deficits and change of GOVT and Brexits / there is no movement on Fee structure !? You talk about raising standards , how about understanding the mechanics of running a business / mot station it needs income not peanuts to cope with standards and overheads and pensions and wages / where are they coming from when the said Govt don't want to rectify the Mot fee mess / Years have gone it remains the same , what is going on , it's 20 th century / for these reasons someone had to sell the business
Comment by Jim posted on
testing guide still showing 2 day refresher??? any sign of updated guide
Comment by Jim posted on
anyone know when testing guide will be updated on system or on line
Comment by Dave posted on
I have had recognised professional qualifications since the 70,a proper apprenticeship ,national craftsman certificates,IMI exam full technological certificate etc etc,not one nvq though,those certificates allowed me to become a nominated tester in the first place,one big mistake was allowing 6 month wonders to carry out testing.Find it quite insulting that my qualifications ( which may be higher than a lot at DVSA ) are been put down by them
Comment by A. Jones. posted on
I can guarantee if they do agree to fixed fee they will increase the slot price,
Comment by Hooters posted on
ONE BIG STEP
I think DVSA are overlooking one important thing in their aim to "improve testing standards and consistency across the industry"
Broadly, If they fixed the fee, then 'loss-leader tests' would no longer exist, so the test-standards would become more uniform.
If they allowed us access to see ALL VTS statistics, then in the blink of an eye, we would be able to see any co-relation between failure rate and discounting.
But I think that would cause some embarrassment wouldn't it?
Hooters.
Comment by P Reeve posted on
We're holding out with the full price and seem to have enough customers with a brain to get by although we have clearly been hit too with all the cut-price clowns. The other real danger here is that customers might think that if you're dearer on MOTs then you'll be dearer on servicing & repairs which is usually quite the opposite seeing as the cut-pricers have to do some catching up when it comes to the final bill.
As for the training lark, 50% passmark on a multi-choice exam with forewarned subject matter hardly seems to prove much.
Comment by Harry posted on
You will NEVER NEVER improve standards and consistency across the industry. When you allow some big high street name's, [we all know who they are] and some other unscrupulous station's to carry out test's, for in some cases, as low as £19.00. We all know this is a loss leader.
THE PRICE NEED'S TO BE A SET FEE!!!!. Then at least one part of the test has some consistency.
Its about time the smaller hard working honest, independent's get together to challenge this, as DVSA have never been seen to do any thing about it.
Comment by darren posted on
totally agree but unfortunately it will never happen
Comment by C. Evans posted on
With you all the way , but what can we do ? I can guarantee they will not listen they never have and they never will . Maybe some sort of online poll so they can see strength of feeling ? But as I say what can you do against an organisation that nearly killed off several garages during the switchover and then gave themselves an award for it !
Comment by C. Evans posted on
Oh and please DVSA don't be clever and implement set fee and then charge us more for each slot .
Comment by Stephen posted on
Totally agree with you Harry. I've in both independent garages and now main dealer, and I have always maintained that there should be a fixed price. Doesn't matter who they are, £55.00 all the way NO CUT BACKS.
Comment by Steve posted on
£55? That's MORE than the maximum fee, isn't it?
Comment by Ellen posted on
Agree totally
Comment by Claire posted on
Totally agree with S. Pickin, dealership fail rates and indy garage fail rates are never going to match up, so why should we as an independent suffer more scrutiny and have to jump through more hoops because we're testing older vehicles?
MOT2 is a joke, as an AE I still can't even do something as simple as issue a duplicate, yet now I'm going to be held responsible for keeping reports on how I've told my NT off, because his failure rate is above the national average?
VTS's are the piggy in the middle, we have VOSA/DVSA breathing down our necks, just waiting for us to trip up so they can pounce and adding new petty record keeping demands, again so they can jump on you and then we have the customer who kicks off because you've failed his car - which has no brakes, that he happily puts his children in, to then drive off down the road calling you a robber!
I also want a fixed fee, but remember all to clearly my AE's course, where it was stated by the tutor that VOSA will never bring in a fixed fee, "because they want to encourage competition" .....
Comment by Kelly posted on
i have still not seen anywhere that tells us which aspects of the trest we need to study as i understood it was to be done in blocks or where we go to do the test, as i do not wish to pay for an outside company to train my staff, when they can sit at the garage and do it free, also no fee has been set yet for us to do the test ourselves all the training porviders are different prices and not local to everyone. Afraid this loks like a complete cock up and looks doomed to fail before it even starts.
A day out very 5 years was never a problem but this is causing so much confusion.
Also what is happening and how does the new QC work,
tried to send email via MOT site about this and it just keeps crashing!!! and you won an award for the website laughable!
Comment by Peter posted on
Hi, agree with what you're saying there, I recently has a site visit and although I do monthly QC's where I record the results both on a PC and print everything off for a folder copy, which NT and QC sign it, it isnt sufficient, I have been marked down because I dont use an 'external company to carry out my QC's'. There's no profit in MOT's and now after purchasing all new IT they expect me to pay someone else to do my QC's which prior to this upgrade was more than sufficient 'inhouse' one every three months, and now I also have to pay to keep my training up to date.
Comment by Richard posted on
I totally agree Peter.same thing here.do monthly checks on all testers and even have discussions about it after,all recorded etc but still get marked down for doing it In house and not getting an overpriced external auditer to do it!!!thats fair!!you can do the best mot test in the world everytime all the time but get marked down on a site assessment for not displaying or recording when the toilets were last cleaned!!!rediculous!
Comment by r m pickering posted on
Robert Pickering hello everyone since the new system has been running nothing but problems can't log in, log in details when you can system has problems with trying to print out the fails just put in print a copy give it to your customer what a joke 10minutes sometimes give up in the end we will post it to you bye.
Comment by A. Jones. posted on
Right DVSA please get the message do something about the fee country wide . FIXED FEE means equal testing and everybody is on equal footing to start pass or fail no gain to be made by cut price and loss leading garages . ARE WE GETTING THROUGH DO SOMETHING FOR US PLEASE. You keep saying your listening and have done the switchover by consulting mot testers which you did not, well now we are telling you what we all want .
Comment by dunc posted on
well said , and you can bet your bottom dollar ,if dvsa was collecting the test fee it would be fixed and probably higher
Comment by phil starkey posted on
i agree with the idea of a fixed fee. but if it comes think on there will be no independants testing as either dekra or tesco would come along buy the mot scheme from the government hey presto we're out of a job. at the moment the scheme is'nt profitable enough for a buy out.
Comment by Dave posted on
A fixed fee is what's needed. The customer could then be assured that there will be no 'little failures' that occur to get the money back up. Perhaps MOT stations should be only allowed to conduct MOT's and not repairs. Just a thought, but couldn't it be made a requirement that a vehicle needs to be tested within a certain radius of it's registered address (I know this would be very hard to police). With a fixed, compulsory fee, perhaps the whole MOT community could co-operate with each other rather than competing??
Comment by Jonathan Wood posted on
Can anyone advise on how to obtain information on the new managers training and what this would involves.
Comment by Daz c posted on
With regards to mot managers firstly don't contact dvsa on the matter because quite frankly they washed there hands with it. You need to contact the imi,city and guilds or the rmi who has produced the course in conjuction with the dvsa. And they will then put you in touch with there course providers in your area. Night mare basically I'm on mine end of month at a costly sum I might add.
Comment by Matters of Testing posted on
Hi Jonathan,
The information about MOT managers training has been updated on GOV.UK and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/become-an-mot-station/overview
Regards
Thomas
Comment by Graham Acton posted on
I agree with John Philips above.
The fact that the MOT fee, a legal requirement, isn't set is comical.
How can the public even consider that there are "National Standards" with such disparity in MOT fees.
Furthermore the fact that the fee has been frozen is stifling reinvestment..
The fee should be the same up and down the country, period.
Comment by S Pickin posted on
You seem to be obsessed with getting everything in line with the national averages. To me this is totally flawed, comparing results from somewhere like Stratstones testing 3 year old Jaguars to a small independant in the depths of Stoke-on-Trent is going to flag up a discrepancy. We can't stop failing stuff because our averages don't fall in line with what you want to see. It fails, in my station at any rate, because it does not reach the standard required. It should only be about wether the vehicle is fit to be on the road, end of!
Comment by C. Evans posted on
Great nice little 6 steps every year . How lucky we are that this well thought out plan has saved you so much work . Thank you from your ever obedient subjects.
Comment by A. Jones. posted on
There is absolutely no point in leaving a comment as you do not listen . Do what you want and leave us cope with the consequences as long as its less work for you . Thanks DVSA please give yourselves an award for managing to send this email correctly.
Comment by Alan Nicholls posted on
Could you tell me where I can sit a manager coarse,In Scotland
Comment by john philips posted on
what indepedent mot garages need is an increased and fixed fee and a complete end to fast fits and main dealers using mots as a loss leader and sales tool ,last year our slot fee paid for training and the mot equipment , now we get nothing for our slot fee ,a frozen fee since 2010 , before adding more and more costs via unwanted private training for mot garages sort the fee out
Comment by a comben posted on
while efforts to improve training are very laudable once again the spectre of privatisation has reared its ugly head and along with it very large extra costs for all testing stations is it not about time that some consideration was was given to setting a fixed price for for a mot test which cannot be cut or used as a loss leader by some of large multiples that shall remain nameless
Comment by H Hoonjan posted on
Its definitely a step in the right direction which is well overdue. MOT testers status should be above the technecian's level.
Its is logical and ethical at the same time a recognised professional qualification should be rewarded with a decent financial reward. Currently NTs are underpaid. A national wage should be set to reflect this qualification foe NTs.
Comment by Stephen posted on
H. your having a laugh, a national wage for NT's. Don't even go there. It's the MOT standard that is low, I've asked plenty of times to go on a managers course, but the bosses won't let me.
A fixed fee across the board with NO cut backs would help the smaller garages, and the bigger firms will just have to suck it up.