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UKATA Asbestos Non-Licensed Operative
For tradespeople who actually carry out non licensed work with asbestos containing materials, rather than people who need to recognise it and stop. Controlled work, done properly, under CAR 2012.
About this course
There is a category of asbestos work that does not require a licensed contractor. Removing asbestos cement sheeting, working on textured decorative coatings, drilling asbestos insulating board in some circumstances: work where the fibre release is expected to be low and controlled.
Low is not zero. Non licensed work still exposes people to asbestos fibres, still requires controls, and under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 still requires proper training. Regulation 10 is explicit that anybody carrying out this work, and anybody supervising it, must have suitable information, instruction and training for the work they are actually doing.
This one day course is that training. It goes well past awareness. It covers the different categories of asbestos work and how to tell which one you are in, which is where a great many people go wrong. It covers the controls that make non licensed work safe: enclosure where needed, wetting, controlled methods, avoiding power tools, and the correct sequence for each task type.
Respiratory protective equipment gets proper attention, including the fact that a mask that has not been face fit tested is not protection. Decontamination and waste handling get the same, because most cross contamination happens after the work is finished.
It also covers notifiable non licensed work, which is a category people either have never heard of or assume does not apply to them, and the notification and medical surveillance duties that come with it.
- The categories of asbestos work: licensed, notifiable non licensed and non licensed
- How to tell which category a specific job falls into, and what to do when you are not sure
- The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and the duties on employers and workers
- Notifiable non licensed work: notification, records and medical surveillance
- Risk assessment and the plan of work for non licensed asbestos work
- Controlling fibre release: wetting, controlled methods, avoiding power tools, enclosure
- Task specific controls for asbestos cement, textured coatings and asbestos insulating board
- Respiratory protective equipment: selection, face fit testing, fitting and checking
- Protective clothing, and why disposable suits go on in a specific order
- Decontamination: personal, equipment and the work area
- Asbestos waste: bagging, double bagging, labelling, transport and disposal
- Emergency procedures for an uncontrolled release
How completing this course helps you
- A UKATA asbestos non licensed operative certificate, valid for one year
- Operatives competent to carry out non licensed asbestos work under CAR 2012
- Compliance with the Regulation 10 training duty for the work actually being done
- Correct decontamination and waste handling, which is where most cross contamination happens
- A clear understanding of the line between non licensed work and work that needs a licence
Who should attend?
Tradespeople and operatives who carry out non licensed work with asbestos containing materials, and the supervisors responsible for them: maintenance and refurbishment teams, roofing and cladding contractors, builders and demolition operatives, social housing and property maintenance teams, and facilities contractors.
Entry requirements. None formally, although candidates should already understand asbestos awareness content. If your people have not had asbestos awareness training, tell us and we will make sure the session starts from the right place.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Licensed or not
Knowing which category you are in is the whole job
The most dangerous moment on an asbestos job is the point somebody decides it is non licensed work when it is not. That decision is made on site, often quickly, often by the person who wants to get on with it.
The categories turn on the material, its condition, and the method you intend to use. The same material can fall into different categories depending on whether it is in good condition and what you plan to do to it, which is why a blanket rule never works.
This course spends real time there, because a wrong call means an unlicensed crew doing licensed work, and that is both a serious exposure and a criminal offence. When it is genuinely unclear, the right answer is to stop and get it assessed.
Might encounter asbestos
UKATA Asbestos Awareness. Recognise it and stop.
Carrying out non licensed work
This course. Controls, RPE, decontamination and waste, plus the category decision.
Licensed work
A licensed contractor. Not a training course: a licence granted by the HSE.
Responsible for the building
Duty to Manage Asbestos, covering Regulation 4.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
Asbestos, health and the law
- Asbestos types, properties and health effects
- Latency and the multiplying effect of smoking
- The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
- Regulation 10 and training for the work being done
- Duties on employers, the self employed and workers
Which category of work is this?
- Licensed work and when a licensed contractor is required
- Notifiable non licensed work and what triggers it
- Non licensed work
- Deciding which category a job falls into
- Notification, record keeping and medical surveillance for NNLW
- When to stop and get advice
Doing the work
- Risk assessment and the plan of work
- Controlling fibre release: wetting, controlled methods, hand tools
- Why power tools are the fastest way to make a job unsafe
- Enclosures and local exhaust ventilation where required
- Task specific methods for asbestos cement, textured coatings and AIB
- Air monitoring in outline
Protection and cleaning up
- Selecting RPE, and why face fit testing is not optional
- Fitting, checking and maintaining RPE
- Protective clothing and the correct order of donning and doffing
- Personal decontamination
- Cleaning equipment and the work area, and the right vacuum
- Asbestos waste: bagging, labelling, transport and disposal
- Emergency procedures for an uncontrolled release
Method of assessment
How Asbestos Non Licensed Operative is assessed
Practical work and observation across the day, with a written assessment to close. Certification is issued through UKATA.
Practical work
Working through controlled methods, donning and doffing protective clothing in the correct order, decontamination and waste bagging. The donning and doffing exercise catches almost everybody the first time.
Category exercise
Deciding whether a series of real jobs are licensed, notifiable non licensed or non licensed. This is the decision that matters most and the one most often got wrong.
Written assessment and certificate
A written check on the regulations, the categories and the controls, then a UKATA certificate valid for one year.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Live online
The same tutor and the same timetable, joined from anywhere.
Ask us to open a live online date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
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Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run Asbestos Non Licensed Operative at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
Asbestos Non Licensed Operative FAQs
Work where exposure is expected to be low and the material is in reasonable condition, such as removing asbestos cement products or working on textured decorative coatings using controlled methods. It depends on the material, its condition and the method, which is why the course spends so long on the decision rather than giving a list.
A middle category introduced by the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. It is still non licensed, but it has to be notified to the relevant enforcing authority, records kept, and medical surveillance arranged for the workers. A good many employers doing NNLW do not realise they are.
No. It covers non licensed and notifiable non licensed work only. Licensed work, which includes most work on sprayed coatings, lagging and asbestos insulating board, requires a contractor licensed by the HSE. No training course substitutes for that licence.
Yes, for any tight fitting RPE. A mask that has not been face fit tested to the individual wearing it is not providing the protection the risk assessment assumes, and facial hair defeats it entirely. The course covers why; the test itself is a separate arrangement.
One year. Annual refresher training is the expectation for all asbestos work under CAR 2012.
Annually. The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require training to be refreshed at regular intervals, and UKATA and HSE guidance both point at twelve months for asbestos awareness and non licensed work. It is one of the few subjects where an annual refresher is genuinely the expectation rather than a nicety.
Yes. Acadame is a UKATA member and this training is delivered to the UKATA standard, so the certificate is the one a principal contractor or client is looking for when they ask for UKATA asbestos training.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and it works well for a whole team. We can also run it live online where that suits a spread out workforce better.
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