Budman hi,

i accept what your saying and it times it can get a bit red tapey and i have had more than a few frustrated moments dealing with awarding bodies but at the same time i feel that working within this structure helps to reduce ambiguity and mis-interpretation from legislation and sets an indusrty wide benchmark for instructors/operators.

as for the OP's original question, having the awarding body system makes career progression clear and straight forward:- find a company running the course, book yourself on, bish bash bosh, two weeks later your a qualified instructor :D