There are a number of professional bodies / governing bodies / trade associations that exist to help and support tradespeople. I focus mainly on Trade Associations in this article, however the lists provided below incorporate all unique types.

What is a Trade Association?

You may be wondering what Trade Associations can do to help you. Are they worth the yearly membership fees? What will you get out of them? Trade Associations are formed from a membership of companies operating in a particular area of industry. They exist for their members' benefit and perform a number of services:

Lobbying with government on regulatory issues
Providing advice and general support
Holding meetings, workshops and seminars
Enabling networking and the exchange of information and ideas
Publicising safety messages
Acting as a research centre
Developing guidance documents based on members' experience
Monitoring industry developments likely to affect members' businesses
Promoting health & safety, environmental & technical advancements

Click below to find relevant Trade Association that can help you:

Joining a Trade Association

Membership of a reputable Trade Association is usually an asset to a business, but how do you know if the Trade Association is reputable? They all vary in practice so membership is not necessarily a guarantee of quality service.

Membership of a Trade Association is usually available to companies active in the relevant industry, by application, a process of acceptance and payment of a fee. However it should be noted that Trade Associations operate in different ways, with different qualifying criteria. For example, some Trade Associations may only admit contractors who have been strictly vetted for quality workmanship, sound business and health and safety practices before becoming a member. It's therefore important to research and understand these variations.

A Trade Association is non-profit-making and the fees are intended to cover the necessary expenses of operation.

Trade Associations & the Government

A Trade Association does not regulate in the way that legislators do. They provide guidance to members and work to update and introduce new guidelines wherever the need arises. Members work to those guidelines by way of 'self-regulating'.

Governments provide a basic structure of legislation to deal with a range of issues in the public interest. The government cannot afford time to produce detailed legislation for every part of an industry's operations and therefore the role of the Trade Association is important.

Self regulation is also far easier to implement quickly and to change than government legislation and with technology advancing rapidly this flexibility can be a vital benefit.