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NVQ Level 2 Roofing
The roofing qualification behind the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card, assessed on the roofs you already strip, batten and cover. Three pathways: roof tiler, roof slater, or both. No college and no exam. Register any week and your assessor plans it around the work you already have on.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 2 NVQ Roofing, Tiling and Slating different
About this qualification
The Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Roofing Occupations (Construction) is the qualification CSCS accept for the Blue Skilled Worker card in roofing, and the one experienced roofers hold when they cover a roof unsupervised to a commercial standard. It is not taught. It records, against the national occupational standards, the work you already do: working to the site's health, safety and welfare arrangements, working productively to the programme and the standard, moving, handling and storing the materials, and covering the roof itself.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications under qualification number 601/8329/9. Three units are mandatory for everyone. You then take one of three pathways. The roof tiler pathway covers underlay, battens and roofing components, pre formed weathering flashings, plain tile coverings and single lap coverings to variable gauge. The roof slater pathway covers underlay, battens and components, flashings, and regular sized natural slate to standard roof details. The roof slater and tiler pathway is both, for roofers who do the lot.
Assessment is a portfolio of photographs, job sheets and witness testimony from your own roofs, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor, most of it from your phone and by video call. There is no fixed duration and no cohort. This qualification is not open for registration yet, so the page is an enquiry: tell us what you cover and we will tell you where you stand.
- Nothing new, if you are already covering roofs to a commercial standard. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence roofing competence: what a set of stage photographs from underlay to ridge, a job sheet, a delivery note and a witness testimony from the site manager each prove
- Which pathway your week already covers, tiling, slating or both, and what the slater and tiler pathway adds
- Where the Level 3 Occupational Work Supervision sits if you already run a gang
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Roofing Occupations (Construction), certificated by GQA
- Eligibility for the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card, once you have passed the health and safety test, issued by GQA under their own CSCS card scheme
- A temporary CSCS card on registration, in case you need one while you complete
- A Level 2 that never expires, and the base for the Level 3 Occupational Work Supervision if you go on to run a gang
Who is it for?
Roofers who strip, batten and cover pitched roofs in plain tile, single lap tile or natural slate, work unsupervised to a commercial standard and hold no formal qualification. Also roofers who have been on the tools for years without a card behind them, and anyone whose card has run out without a qualification to renew it against.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements and you do not need a qualification first. What you do need is live roofing work to evidence from, because every unit is assessed on real roofs: the underlay and the battens going on, the gauge set out, the courses laid, the flashings dressed in, your site manager's word. GQA are clear that the evidence has to be generated in the workplace, so it cannot be simulated in a training centre. The initial assessment below confirms your pathway before you commit to anything.
Ready to find out if you qualify?
The initial assessment takes a couple of minutes and nothing is typed: you click through what you do and what you can evidence, and it tells you the pathway, the level and what to gather. Or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Initial assessment
Check you qualify, in a couple of minutes
Nothing to type. Click through what you cover, what you lay and what you can evidence, and it shows you whether the Level 2 fits, which pathway your work already covers and the evidence your assessor will ask for. It is about what you can evidence, not a test: anything you cannot evidence yet is something we plan with you and your employer. These answers are your initial assessment, and you can email yourself a PDF of it.
The online check needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us what you do and we will run the initial assessment with you over the phone.
What you evidence
The units behind the qualification
Three units are mandatory, worth 10 credits, and you take one of three pathways. Roof slater is 56 credits, which is the published figure for the qualification. Roof tiler is 61 credits. Roof slater and tiler is 86 credits. 294 guided learning hours, 560 hours total qualification time. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from your own work.
The three units everyone completes (10 credits)
- J/507/9562 Moving, handling and storing resources in the workplace (5 credits)
- F/507/9561 Conforming to productive working practices in the workplace (3)
- A/507/9560 Conforming to general health, safety and welfare in the workplace (2)
Roof tiler: all four units (61 credits in total)
- K/508/0252 Installing plain tile roof coverings in the workplace (17)
- M/508/0253 Installing single lap roof coverings to variable gauge in the workplace (13)
- D/508/0247 Installing underlay, battens and roofing components in the workplace (11)
- H/508/0248 Installing pre formed weathering flashings to roofs in the workplace (10)
Roof slater: all three units (56 credits in total)
- R/508/0262 Installing regular sized natural roof slate to standard roof details in the workplace (25)
- D/508/0247 Installing underlay, battens and roofing components in the workplace (11)
- H/508/0248 Installing pre formed weathering flashings to roofs in the workplace (10)
Roof slater and tiler: all five units (86 credits in total)
- R/508/0262 Installing regular sized natural roof slate to standard roof details in the workplace (25)
- K/508/0252 Installing plain tile roof coverings in the workplace (17)
- M/508/0253 Installing single lap roof coverings to variable gauge in the workplace (13)
- D/508/0247 Installing underlay, battens and roofing components in the workplace (11)
- H/508/0248 Installing pre formed weathering flashings to roofs in the workplace (10)
Method of assessment
How the Level 2 roofing NVQ on-site assessment works
Competence based, which means no exam and no written test. You build a portfolio of evidence from the roofs you cover, your assessor watches you work and you talk the knowledge through in a professional discussion. Every unit is assessed in a work environment, and workplace evidence of skills cannot be simulated. The online check above is your initial assessment; there is no separate skills scan.
1. Initial assessment, online
The questions you click through above are your initial assessment. They tell us which pathway your work covers, tiling, slating or both, whether you have enough live work to evidence it, and what your assessor will need to see on the roof.
2. Register with GQA
Once the qualification opens we register you with GQA under qualification number 601/8329/9. That registration can also release a temporary CSCS card in case you need one, once we have your HS&E test result report, a passport style photograph and the right postal address.
3. Evidence from your own jobs
Photographs of the roof at each stage, from strip out and underlay through battens and gauge to the finished courses, ridge and verge, job sheets and day sheets, delivery notes for tiles, slates, battens and fixings, witness testimony from the site manager, the RAMS you worked to, scaffold and edge protection inspection records. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Workplace observation
Your assessor comes to the job and watches you work: laying the underlay and the battens, setting the gauge, laying the courses, cutting to a valley or a hip, dressing in a flashing, and records what they see against the standard.
5. Professional discussion
A recorded conversation about why you work the way you do. It covers the knowledge a photograph cannot show: headlap and gauge for the pitch and the exposure, fixing specifications and wind uplift, ventilation and condensation, what you do when the rafters are out of line or the pitch is below what the covering allows.
6. Certificate, then the card
Internal quality assurance, then GQA issue the certificate. Pass the CITB Specialist Work at Height test, or GQA's own health and safety test, and we apply to GQA for your Blue Skilled Worker card.
After the qualification
Getting the Blue card, not just the certificate
The qualification is only half of it. The Blue Skilled Worker card needs a Level 2 qualification in the occupation and a pass in a health and safety test taken within the last two years, either the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test for Operatives or GQA's own test. Not the Specialist Supervisory test, and not the Managers and Professionals test. We book the right one for you. GQA issue their own CSCS cards, so the certificate and the card both come from GQA, and the card carries the CSCS logo and is read on site like any other.
You do not have to wait for any of that to be on site. GQA issue a temporary CSCS card as soon as we register you, in case you need one while you complete, and post it to you direct. It lasts up to twelve months and it cannot be renewed, so it is a bridge and not a destination. You give us your CITB HS&E test result report, a passport style photograph and the exact postal address, because GQA send it once and we will not pay for it twice if the address is wrong. It is not a free Blue card: that follows the certificate.
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test at Operatives level, or GQA's own test, booked with us
- Blue Skilled Worker card application, which we make to GQA for you, valid five years
- Temporary card on registration, in case you need one, posted by GQA, up to twelve months and not renewable
- The Level 3 Occupational Work Supervision when you start running the gang
Level 2 NVQ Roofing, Tiling and Slating FAQs
Roof tiler if you lay plain tiles and single lap tiles to a variable gauge. Roof slater if you lay regular sized natural slate to standard roof details. Roof slater and tiler if you do both, which is five units and the biggest certificate of the three. All three include the underlay, battens and components unit and the pre formed weathering flashings unit. The initial assessment on this page works out which your work evidences.
No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the roofs you already cover, through photographs and documents from your own jobs, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor. GQA require the evidence to be generated in the workplace, so it cannot be done in a training centre.
The Blue Skilled Worker card, valid five years. You need the Level 2 certificate plus a pass in the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test for Operatives, or GQA's own health and safety test, within the last two years, then the card application, which we make to GQA for you.
Yes, in case you need one. GQA issue a temporary card as soon as we register you and post it to you direct. It lasts up to twelve months and it cannot be renewed. We need your CITB HS&E test result report, a passport style photograph and the exact address to send it to, because GQA send it once. It is not a free Blue card: the Blue card follows the certificate.
As long as you take. There is no fixed duration, no cohort and no term dates, and the qualification is led by you. A roofer with a phone full of stage photographs from recent roofs can be quick. The flashings unit needs the right detail to come up, so your assessor plans it around what is on next.
Photographs of each roof at stages, from strip out and underlay through battens and gauge to the finished courses, ridge and verge, job sheets and day sheets, delivery notes for tiles, slates, battens and fixings, witness testimony from the site manager, the RAMS you worked to, scaffold and edge protection inspection records. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing.
Not on this qualification. This one is pitched roofing in tile and slate, and the three pathways are tiler, slater, and slater and tiler. If most of your week is flat roofing, felt, single ply or liquid systems, tell us on the enquiry and we will tell you what fits instead, because putting you on the wrong qualification helps nobody.
You carry on from the next roof. Evidence can come from more than one job and your assessor plans the units around what is coming up. Anything you cannot evidence yet is something we plan with you and your employer.
Any week. There is no intake and no waiting list. Click through the initial assessment and send it to us, and we will confirm your pathway and what happens next.
Yes, employers can be invoiced and can put a whole gang through as one booking. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers. Tell us who is paying when you enquire and we will set it out properly before anyone commits.
£850 + VAT. That is the whole qualification: registration with the awarding body, your assessor, the visits, the portfolio and the certificate. There is no separate exam fee and no course fee on top, because there is no course to attend. The CSCS card is applied for separately and CSCS charge their own fee for it.
Yes, and for a roofer who has been slating, tiling or laying membrane for years without a card that is the normal route. There is no set length. You are assessed on the work you are already doing, so the pace is set by how quickly the evidence comes together rather than by a timetable. People who already have photographs, job records and a supervisor who will sign a witness statement often finish inside a few weeks. Nobody is held back waiting for a term to start.
Your assessor comes to you, on your own jobs, in your own working week. They watch you work, take photographs, ask you why you did it that way, and record it against the units. Between visits you upload evidence and your assessor tells you what is still missing. There is no college, no classroom and no written exam.
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Putting several people through?
One assessor and one invoice for the whole team
Group registrations are common on frameworks and large sites. We assess on site so nobody leaves the project, and we handle the awarding body, the certificates and the cards in one place.