[G6Tanuki]

Yes, I remember the 1970s/80s six-monthly-test cycle, then the seemingly-eternal-wait to hear if you'd passed! Then again the hassle of sending your City&Guilds pass-certificate off to the Authorities, along with a cheque, then the equally-tense wait to find out what call you'd been assigned.

For the future, the ability to do the exams "anytime anyplace, anywhere" - as the 1970s Martini ads used to say - everything done online, with each test being built personally for each candidate from a question-pool - and with you getting a pass/fail [with feedback] the moment you finish the test - is the only sensible way ahead. The commercial IT certification-world has been like that for 15+ years [I did the periodic retest for my Cisco qualifications on a laptop while sitting in the lobby of DFW airport].

"Adaptive testing" could also be adopted - that's been a thing in commercial IT certification for a couple of decades: they pop up a question on-screen and measure the time it takes for you to select an answer. If you show hesitancy that suggests your knowledge of that particular area is perhaps less-than-perfect- so you then get more questions related to that area!

As someone who is not really a "club-type" I've never liked the current scheme where training is provided by clubs and they're used as exam-centres; Doing away with that aspect would also help the youngsters who live in rural areas and would need a parent to drive them to/from training-sessions.