'Fake' apprenticeship

[Mercury00]

Apologies in advance for the long story:

I've recently started a new job at an engineering company. When applying I stated I have completed an apprenticeship in welding and fabrication. Between 2002 and 2005 I attended college on day release and studied the subjects, and I have relevant qualifications from them.

My new employer has refused to put me on the same rate as the other new starters, stating that I have no record of my apprenticeship. They are correct, aside from my college certs I have nothing. Nobody from the college came in to assess us and there was never any kind of paperwork involved, we were just told by our employer at the time that we were apprentices. Obviously our paltry hourly rate reflected that.

Now it seems that it's possible our employer simply used us for cheap labour and this apprenticeship was not actually one. Why send us to college though?

I can't find any info on what it is I need to obtain for my apprenticeship to have been valid. I don't know what it is I need that I haven't got. Is anyone experienced in this area and can give me pointers? I can list the certificates I have if need be. This is getting on for fifteen years after I left school and I'm absolutely gutted that my years at college may have been for nothing - I'm on unskilled wages now despite having worked in fabrication since I left school (I'm 29 now) and the company have told me that I will never progress without the right papers.

[Mercury00]

Thanks for the help. I found the course I did and it's the City & Guilds 2800 Certificate in Engineering, even managed to get a hold of a copy of the course handbook!

I've never had any problems with employers asking for certs until now, and I like this job so want to get paid paid the same as the other staff. I don't think it's unfair to want the same wages for doing exactly the same job. My boss is basically saying that what I've got amounts to nothing more than an hour a week on an evening course, rather than the years I spent on day release.

L2L said:

It sounds like you just achieved the tech certs at the college, but not the full framework of the apprenticeship - you wouldn't have been able to get that without assessor observations/reviews in the workplace. The college would be able to confirm what you were enrolled on and what you actually achieved if you contact them.

The college have said they only keep records for seven years so have nothing on me. Is there anything I can do to get the other things at this stage? I don't want to have wasted my time at college.