[CAUT] CAUT credential vs. academic program?

[Kent Swafford]

On Nov 17, 2007, at 11:39 AM, Ward & Probst, Inc wrote:

> That will be what changes our marketplace - quality work and  
> accurate marketing.


Yes!

Dale touches on something very important that has yet to come up much  
in the discussion. An accomplishment of the PTG in 50 years has been  
to raise the general quality of piano service that is available in the  
marketplace. And of course the effort is ongoing; RPT means more today  
because of the tuning and technical exams with their objective  
measures of tuning and tech ability compared with PTG's early years.

One goal of any certification program for CAUTs should be to improve  
the general overall quality of work done by institutional techs. We  
all know techs here and there that have been unsuccessful in CAUT  
work. To the extent that a CAUT credential can improve the success  
rate of CAUTs, institutions will receive better work, CAUTs will enjoy  
more job satisfaction, the credibility of PTG will be improved --  
everyone should benefit. Perhaps even CAUT salaries will improve; we  
can tell techs not to take low-paying jobs, but one of the best thing  
we can do is to get our act together and offer as a group better  
skills. I suspect that one thing "keeping us down" is the reality that  
some CAUTs don't do work of high enough quality; perhaps once PTG has  
better identified and taught  the skills of the successful CAUT, fewer  
under-qualified techs will take CAUT positions.

This is an important discussion.

Kent Swafford