Level 3 NVQ Site Inspection

Yes. Level 3 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as A levels and an advanced apprenticeship. It is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can do the job at that level rather than that you have studied it.

Construction if you inspect building work and report on the condition of property. Civil engineering if your week is dimensional accuracy and monitoring and recording tests. Building services if you monitor the installation and commissioning of mechanical and electrical systems. You take one pathway and at least one option from it, and the initial assessment on this page works out which your week evidences.

The Level 3 is assessed on monitoring the work: dimensional checks, inspections, condition reports, keeping the inspection information in order under someone else's sign off. The Level 6 is assessed on owning the standard: setting up the technical information systems, verifying the site health and safety systems, managing progress and handover and carrying the professional judgement. If a clerk of works or a manager above you makes the call, the Level 3 is the honest fit.

No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the inspection work you already do, through a portfolio of your own records, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor.

The Gold Supervisor card, valid five years. CSCS issue it for supervisory and technical occupations against a construction related supervisory or technical NVQ at Level 3 or Level 4, which is what this is. You also need a pass in the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test at Specialist Supervisory level, or GQA's own test, within the last two years, then the card application, which we make to GQA for you. It is not the Gold Advanced Craft card, which is the trade card.

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 Gold card: the Gold 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. Most inspectors finish inside a few months alongside the job. The handover unit needs a project that reaches handover, so your assessor plans that one around what is coming up.

Records you already produce: inspection records and photographs, dimensional check sheets and survey data, condition reports and defect schedules, test records, drawing registers, snagging lists, handover documentation and feedback, health and safety inspection records, meeting minutes. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing.

You carry on from the next project. 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, and the registration with GQA runs long enough to cover it.

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, your options and what happens next.

Yes, employers can be invoiced and can put several inspectors 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.

£1,145 + 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 site inspector or clerk of works already checking work on site that is the normal route. There is no set length. You are assessed on the work you are already responsible for, so the pace is set by how quickly the evidence comes together rather than by a timetable. People who already keep good records often finish far sooner than they expect. Nobody is held back waiting for a term to start.

Your assessor comes to you, and works from the job you are already doing. They look at the records you already produce, the programme, the risk assessments, the meeting notes and the correspondence, and talk through the decisions behind them. Between visits you upload evidence and your assessor tells you what is still missing. There is no college, no classroom and no written exam.