2013 was rather a special year for the Master Locksmiths Association (MLA) and 2014 also promises plenty in store. Here, Dr Steffan George, development director for the MLA outlines some of what members can look forward to as the year gets underway.
2013 was a very exciting year for The Master Locksmiths Association, with our Expo, held in September, a real highlight. One of the most successful MLA Expos in its 30 year history, the event showed just how much the locksmithing and security industry has grown, with new products and services on display from a wide range of organisations – and a real buzz around the venue.
This year promises to be equally exciting, if not more so.
The MLA has just launched the UK’s first locksmith-specific apprentice scheme, which includes the first nationally recognised qualification for locksmiths. In fact the first ‘off the job’ training course for it has just been run with 11 keen apprentices attending. The scheme is not aimed at flooding the market with locksmiths, nor is it the kind of ‘get rich quick’ training programme (apprenticeships have to last for at least 12 months) that is unfortunately so prevalent. Instead it is designed to help companies who would like to take on new staff and have them trained and assessed to a minimum standard.
The scheme will add to the training that locksmiths already provide to their employees and help them progress in our industry, with the apprentices being regularly assessed. If you’re interested in knowing more, please contact either ourselves or Skills for Security.
We believe that the apprentice scheme represents a significant step forward for our industry, improving its skills base, further boosting its credibility and helping to cement locksmithing as a ‘proper job’.
With regard to regulation, it will be interesting to note what effect the introduction of licensing has for locksmiths in the Republic Of Ireland. Currently, CCTV and access control contractors are licensed by Ireland’s Private Security Authority (PSA), but Q4 2014 will see locksmiths regulated in this way too. Whilst the exact details are still being discussed, one of the main plus points is the expectation that not only trading as a locksmith illegally (i.e. unlicensed) will be an offence, but also engaging the services of an unlicensed locksmith will be an offence too!
As we know, the UK Government prefers self-regulation and (we are told) has no plans to change this in the short to medium term, but could it look at the introduction of licensing in Ireland as a ‘trial run’? I’m sure that locksmiths in the UK will have plenty to say on the subject!
What is assured is that the MLA’s work to benefit its members will continue. We have invested significantly in our digital marketing, with our new website, www.locksmiths.co.uk, being a huge success: we will build on this further in 2014.
Having engaged the services of a SEO specialist we have seen a significant increase in hits not only to the website in general, but more importantly to members’ pages. Compared to 2012 we saw a 143% increase in unique visitors to the MLA site (Nov ’12 to Nov ’13) and an increase of almost 600% in visitors to the find-a-locksmith page (for the same time period)! In addition, visits to our locksmith members’ pages are continuously increasing – we had record daily hits in December and this was beaten in January. Monthly hits have followed this trend, with 3,729 hits on locksmiths’ pages (i.e. approved company pages) in September ’13 and 5,833 in December ’13 with this likely to increase further in January.
These figures don’t take into account the fact that company contact details can also be found on the ‘find a locksmith’ page via regional searches, via the listing on the bottom and on the map. Also, all company members’ pages now have a Google page rank of 1. We can add to this the great local search rankings: a number of the MLA pages appear very close to the top of Google for local locksmith searches and in a lot of cases appear higher than the member’s own website! So if you’re an approved company then I’m sure you’ll agree this is great news and well worth the subs, and if you’re not yet an approved company – you may want to think about it!
Our public relations campaign – conveying the importance of using third party accredited, local, professional locksmiths – will continue to promote MLA members to millions of people, including homeowners, tenants, landlords, facilities managers and more, while our partnerships with organisations such as The Neighbourhood and Home Watch Network and the National Federation Of Property Professionals are continuing to bear fruit. Representatives from the MLA will be attending more events this year, where they’ll be talking about the services offered by members, and we’ll be producing more promotional material too!
If you’re not a member of the MLA, why not have a chat with us? You can find out about what being a member involves and how you could benefit. Come and see us at some of the events we attend, or drop us a line. We’d welcome the opportunity to talk to you.
About the MLA
The Master Locksmiths Association (MLA) was established over 50 years ago to set and promote standards of conduct, practice and materials within locksmithing. A not-for-profit organisation, the MLA is recognised as the authoritative body for locksmithing by the police, Home Office and other leading organisations such as the British Standards Institute (BSI).
For more information visit: www.locksmiths.co.uk or call 0800 783 1498.