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Plastering NVQs
The Level 2 and Level 3 plastering NVQs, assessed on the walls and ceilings you are already finishing, with no college and no written exam.
The short version
A plastering NVQ, in plain terms
An NVQ in plastering is an assessment, not a course. Your assessor comes to your jobs, watches you float and set, and records it against the units. At the end you have a qualification and the CSCS card that goes with it.
There are two pathways inside it: solid plastering, which is float and set, render and screed, and fibrous plastering, which is moulding and casting. Your assessor picks the one your work evidences.
Level 2 is the working plasterer's standard and gets the Blue Skilled Worker card. Level 3 covers complex, restoration and heritage work and gets the Gold Advanced Craft card.
- No college, no classroom and no written exam
- Assessed on the work you are already doing
- Solid or fibrous pathway, whichever fits
- Leads to the Blue or Gold CSCS card
- Awarded by GQA, Ofqual regulated
Start here
Which level do you need?
Neither level is a prerequisite for the other. If the work you do already is Level 3 work, you go in at Level 3. The two minute check on any of these pages will tell you which one your day job evidences.
Level 2, the working plasterer
Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card
Float and set, render, screed, dry lining and making good. The standard the industry means when it says a plasterer is qualified.
Level 3, complex and restoration
Gold CSCS Advanced Craft card
Complex and decorative plastering, restoration and heritage work, running mouldings in situ, and putting right work that has gone wrong.
The list
The qualifications in this trade
Prices shown are the whole qualification. Level 2 and Level 3 are separate qualifications, not stages.
Method of assessment
How the on-site assessment works
Five steps, and four of them happen on your own jobs.
The online check
Two minutes on this site. It asks what you do, how long you have done it and what evidence you can lay hands on, and tells you which level fits. That check is the initial assessment: there is no separate interview to sit through afterwards.
Register and meet your assessor
You are registered with the awarding body and given one named assessor who stays with you from start to finish. They ring you first, before anything else, to agree the units and work out what you already have that counts.
They come to you
Your assessor visits 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. Nothing is staged and nothing is done in a workshop.
Evidence in between
Job records, photographs, drawings, a witness statement from your supervisor. You upload it as you go and your assessor tells you exactly what is still missing, so you are never guessing.
Certificate, then the card
Once the evidence is complete it goes for verification and the certificate is issued. The CSCS card is a separate application to CSCS, with their own fee, and you need a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass to go with it.
For employers
Putting a squad through
Most of this work is done for employers rather than individuals, because it is cheaper and far less disruptive that way round.
- One assessor covers the whole squad, so there is one person to deal with
- Everyone stays on the job. No day-release, no travelling, no lost production
- Different trades and different levels can run alongside each other
- One invoice, and we will tell you where every candidate has got to
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment tests booked in the same block
- CITB grant support where your company is registered and in scope
Plastering NVQs: common questions
£850 + VAT for the Level 2, and £950 + VAT for the Level 3. That is the whole qualification: registration with the awarding body, your own assessor, the visits, the portfolio and the certificate. There is no course fee on top because there is no course to attend, and no exam fee because there is no exam. The CSCS card is applied for separately and CSCS charge their own fee for it.
Level 2 is the working plastering standard and it leads to the Blue Skilled Worker card. Level 3 is for the more complex end of the trade and leads to the Gold Advanced Craft card. Neither is a prerequisite for the other: if you are already doing Level 3 work you go straight in at Level 3 rather than working up. The check on this site takes two minutes and will tell you which one your day job actually evidences.
No, and there is no written exam either. The assessment happens on your own jobs, during your own working week, with your assessor coming to you. That is the whole point of an NVQ: it measures what you already do rather than teaching you something you already know.
Yes, and for a time-served plastering that is the normal route. There is no fixed length, because the pace is set by how quickly the evidence comes together rather than by a timetable. Somebody who already has photographs, job records and a supervisor willing to sign a witness statement often finishes inside a few weeks. Nobody waits for a term to start.
Level 2 leads to the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card and Level 3 to the Gold CSCS Advanced Craft card. Gold is the advanced craft card, not a supervisor's card: supervising is a different qualification again. Both need a current pass on the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test, taken within the two years before you apply, and the card application goes to CSCS rather than to us.
Solid plastering is float and set, render, screed and dry lining, and it is what the great majority of plasterers do. Fibrous plastering is moulding, casting and running work, usually in a shop. You are assessed on whichever your own work evidences, so the pathway follows the job rather than the other way round. If you do both, say so and your assessor will use both.
It counts as evidence towards the plastering NVQ, yes, and for many plasterers it makes up a large part of the portfolio. If dry lining is essentially all you do, say so when you enquire, because there are units and in some cases a separate qualification that may fit you better.
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