SMSTS vs SSSTS: Which CITB Course Does Your Role Need?

SSSTS is for supervisors. SMSTS is for managers. That is the whole distinction, and everything else follows from it: SSSTS is two days, SMSTS is five, and the difference in length is the difference between supervising work that somebody else planned and being accountable for the plan.

Both are CITB Site Safety Plus courses, both carry an assessment with an 80 per cent pass mark, and both produce a certificate valid for five years. Neither of them awards a CSCS card. That last point causes more confusion than anything else on this page, so it is worth saying twice: the card and the course are separate things.

Which one does your role need?

• You supervise a gang, a trade or a work area. You brief people, you check the work, you stop it when it is not right, but you did not write the method statement. That is SSSTS.
• You run the site, or a substantial part of it. You are responsible for planning, for the programme, for the risk assessments and for other people’s supervision. That is SMSTS.
• You are on the tools and not supervising anybody. Neither. What you need is Health and Safety Awareness, the one day operative level course.

If you sit between the two, take the higher one. A site manager holding SSSTS will be asked to upgrade sooner or later, and principal contractors increasingly write SMSTS into the contract for anybody with management in their job title.

Side by side

• Length. SSSTS two days. SMSTS five days.
• Audience. SSSTS supervisors, gangers, foremen, team leaders. SMSTS site managers, project managers, agents, anyone with management responsibility.
• Depth. SSSTS covers the supervisor’s part in health and safety law, risk assessment, method statements, toolbox talks and monitoring. SMSTS covers all of that plus CDM duties, planning, occupational health, leadership and the management systems behind it.
• Assessment. Both assessed during the course, 80 per cent pass mark.
• Certificate. Both valid five years.
• CSCS card. Neither awards one. Both are evidence of training that a card application or an employer will ask to see.

The questions people actually ask

Can I go straight to SMSTS without doing SSSTS first?

Yes. SSSTS is not a prerequisite. They are parallel courses for different roles, not two rungs of a ladder, and plenty of people take SMSTS having never held an SSSTS.

Does SSSTS count towards SMSTS?

No. If your role moves up, you take the full five day SMSTS. Holding a current SSSTS does not shorten it.

Which card do they get me?

Neither, on their own. CSCS cards come from qualifications such as NVQs, together with the right Health, Safety and Environment test. SMSTS and SSSTS are training certificates that sit alongside that, and employers ask for them in their own right.

What happens when the five years run out?

You renew with the refresher, and only if the certificate is still in date. SSSTS Refresher is one day, SMSTS Refresher is two. Let it expire and the refresher is closed to you: it is the full course again, two days or five.

Is it the same course everywhere?

Yes. CITB sets the content, the assessment and the pass mark for every Site Safety Plus course, so the syllabus does not vary by provider. What varies is the trainer, the room and whether the date you need actually exists.

Book the one you need

• SSSTS, two days, with live dates and cost.
• SMSTS, five days, with live dates and cost.
• SSSTS Refresher, one day, if yours is still in date.
• SMSTS Refresher, two days, if yours is still in date.
• Every CITB Site Safety Plus course we run, if you are not sure yet.