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Glazier Qualification: Level 2 NVQ Glazing
The qualification behind the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card for glaziers, assessed on the windows, doors and screens you already glaze. Glazing or fire resistant glazing pathway, no college and no exam. Register any week and go at your own pace.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 2 NVQ Glazing different
About this qualification
The Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Glazing is the qualification behind the Blue Skilled Worker CSCS card for glaziers, and the one most glaziers who learned on the job hold instead of a college certificate. It is not taught. It records, against the national occupational standards, the glazing you already do: confirming what the job needs, getting the glass and the gear to the opening safely, preparing the frame, and installing glass into windows, doors and screens to the specification.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications on two pathways. The glazing pathway is for the glazier installing and maintaining glass in frames on customers' premises, and adds at least one of making the installation safe with temporary work, maintaining glazing systems, or cutting glass for glazing. The fire resistant glazing pathway is for the glazier installing fire rated glass, and adds the knowledge and installation of fire resistant glass plus either internal fire rated screens or the replacement of damaged fire resistant glazing. The certificate carries the pathway and the Blue card is the same whichever you take.
Assessment is a portfolio of photographs, works orders, job sheets and witness testimony from your own jobs, an observation of you glazing and a professional discussion with your assessor, most of it from your phone and by video call. There is no fixed duration: you register any week and finish as quickly as your jobs produce the evidence.
- Nothing new, if you are already glazing to a commercial standard. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence a job properly: what a photograph at each stage, a works order and a witness testimony from the site manager each prove
- Which pathway your week evidences, glazing or fire resistant glazing, and which option gives you the most credits for the least effort
- Where the Level 3 Glazing sits, and whether leading the job and the specialist glazing you do already point at it
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Glazing, certificated by GQA on the glazing or the fire resistant glazing pathway
- Eligibility for the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card for glaziers, issued by GQA 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, which is what main contractors and window companies ask for before they let a glazier through the gate
Who is it for?
Glaziers, glazing fitters and installers who learned on the job and hold no formal qualification, glazing systems maintainers, self employed glaziers who need a card for commercial sites, and anyone whose Blue card or old Industry Accreditation card has run out without a qualification behind it. If you carry glass and help but a glazier installs it, talk to us first, because you need enough of your own work to evidence. If your job is fitting the frames into the opening rather than the glass into the frame, the Level 2 Fenestration Installation is the one.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements. What you do need is live glazing work to evidence from, because every unit is assessed on real jobs: your photographs, your works orders, your site manager's word. GQA describe the candidate as someone who needs minimum supervision to do the job. Most people are assessed on their normal week. The initial assessment below confirms this before you pay 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 do, the kind of glazing you are on and what you can evidence, and it shows you the pathway that fits 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
Six units are mandatory whichever pathway you take, worth 26 credits. The glazing pathway adds at least 6 credits of options (32 credits minimum). The fire resistant glazing pathway adds two mandatory fire resistant glazing units worth 13 credits and at least one option (47 credits minimum). It is a Certificate rather than a Diploma because it is the smaller size of qualification, 32 credits at its minimum where a Diploma starts at 37. 204 guided learning hours, 320 hours total qualification time. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from your own work.
The six units everyone completes (26 credits)
- T/601/5060 Maintain health and safety within the glazing working environment (4 credits)
- A/600/7364 Communicating and working with others in glass and related working environments (3)
- J/601/5063 Confirm the glazing requirements (4)
- L/601/5064 Locate, handle and transport glazing materials and equipment (4)
- R/601/5065 Prepare for glazing work (4)
- H/601/5068 Install glass in glazing system (7)
Glazing
- At least 6 credits, so at least one unit, from: Y/601/5066 Carry out temporary work to make safe the glazing installation (6), A/601/5075 Maintain glazing systems (8), F/601/5076 Cut glass for glazing (7)
- 32 credits minimum. The pathway most glaziers take: installing and maintaining glass in windows, doors and screens on customers' premises
- Anything you evidence beyond the minimum is listed on the certificate as additional credits
Fire resistant glazing
- Two further mandatory units: F/650/5011 Knowledge of fire resistant glazing (4) and H/650/5012 Installation of fire resistant glass (9)
- Plus at least one option: K/650/5014 Installation of internal fire rated windows, doors or screens (10) or L/650/5015 Carry out replacement of damaged or broken fire resistant glazing (8)
- 47 credits minimum. For glaziers installing fire rated glass and screens, where the glass, the seals, the beads and the fixings are all part of the fire performance
Method of assessment
How the Level 2 glazing NVQ on-site assessment works
Competence based, which means no exam and no written test. You build a portfolio of evidence from the jobs you are on, your assessor watches you glaze and you talk the knowledge through in a professional discussion. 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 whether your work is glazing or fire resistant glazing, whether you have enough live work to evidence it, and whether leading the job and the specialist glazing you do already point at the Level 3 instead.
2. Register with GQA
We register you with GQA under qualification number 500/8802/6 on your pathway. 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 work at each stage, from the frame prepared to the glass beaded in and cleaned off, works orders and job sheets, delivery notes for the glass and units, the glazing schedule or specification you worked to, witness testimony from the site manager or your supervisor, the RAMS and toolbox talks you signed, the CoSHH sheets for sealants and cleaners. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Workplace observation
Your assessor comes to the job and watches you glaze: checking the opening and the glass against the order, handling the unit, setting blocks and packers, beading, sealing and cleaning down, 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: why that glass in that location, safety glazing and the Building Regulations, setting blocks and drainage, what you do when the unit does not fit or arrives damaged.
6. Certificate, then the card
Internal quality assurance, then GQA issue the certificate. Pass the CITB Operatives test and apply to GQA for the Blue Skilled Worker card, valid five years.
After the qualification
Getting the Blue card, not just the certificate
The NVQ is only half of what the card scheme asks for. Since 2017 the CSCS cards for glaziers have been issued by GQA under the CSCS partner card scheme, not by CSCS direct. The Blue Skilled Worker card needs the Level 2 qualification 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 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. We pick up the cost. You give us your 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
- The Level 3 Glazing next, if you already lead the job and do the specialist glazing
Level 2 NVQ Glazing FAQs
No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the glazing you already do, through photographs and documents from your own jobs, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor.
As long as you take. There is no fixed duration, no cohort and no term dates: you register any week and the qualification is led by you. Most glaziers finish inside a few months alongside the job, and someone with a phone full of photographs from recent jobs can be quicker.
The Blue Skilled Worker card for glaziers, valid five years. For the glass and glazing industry the card is issued by GQA under the CSCS partner card scheme rather than by CSCS direct, and it carries the CSCS logo. 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 an application to GQA. The Level 3 gets the Gold Skilled Worker card.
Yes, in case you need one. GQA issue a temporary card as soon as we register you and post it to you direct, at our cost. We need your HS&E test result report, a passport style photograph and the exact address to send it to. It is not a free Blue card: the Blue card follows the certificate.
The one your jobs already evidence. If you install and maintain glass in windows, doors and screens, that is the glazing pathway. If you install fire rated glass and screens, that is the fire resistant glazing pathway. If your job is fitting the whole window or door into the opening rather than the glass into the frame, you want the Level 2 Fenestration Installation instead. The Blue card is the same whichever you take, and the initial assessment on this page works it out from what you click.
Photographs of each job at stages, from the frame prepared to the glass beaded in and cleaned off, works orders and job sheets, delivery notes for the glass and units, the glazing schedule or specification you worked to, witness testimony from the site manager or your supervisor, the RAMS and toolbox talk records you signed, and the CoSHH sheets for sealants and cleaners. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing.
You carry on from the next job. Evidence can come from more than one job and your assessor plans the units around what your next job will produce. Anything you cannot evidence yet is something we plan with you and your employer, and the initial assessment shows it before you pay.
Yes. Employers can be invoiced and can put several glaziers through as one booking. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and we check what applies before you commit. Self employed glaziers pay direct, with interest free instalments if you want them.
£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 glazier who has been glazing for years and has never been assessed 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.