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Qualifications
Forty-one NVQs and qualifications across the trades, supervision, management, health and safety and plant. None of them involve a classroom, and none of them involve an exam.
The short version
How an NVQ actually works
An NVQ is not a course and nobody is going to teach you your trade. It is an assessment of the work you already do, carried out where you already do it, by an assessor who comes to you.
There is no college, no day release and no written exam. You are registered with the awarding body, given one named assessor who stays with you from start to finish, and assessed over a series of visits to your own jobs. In between you send evidence: photographs, job records, drawings, a witness statement from your supervisor. When the evidence is complete the certificate is issued.
For most people the certificate is not the point. The card is. Nearly every qualification here is the evidence CSCS want for a Blue, Gold or Black card, and the card is what gets you through the gate. That application goes to CSCS separately, with their own fee, and needs a current pass on the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test alongside it.
There is no waiting for a term to start. You can register any week of the year, and a time-served tradesman who already has photographs and records on their phone is often finished inside a few weeks rather than months.
- No college, no classroom and no written exam
- Assessed on your own jobs, wherever in the UK you work
- One named assessor from start to finish
- Start any week of the year, and fast track if you are time served
- The evidence CSCS want for the Blue, Gold and Black cards
Start here
Where do you start?
Levels are not stages and you do not have to work up through them. You enter at the level the work you already do can evidence, which is why the commonest expensive mistake is going in too low. The check on any qualification page takes two minutes and will tell you which level your day job actually supports.
On the tools
Blue and Gold CSCS cards
Bricklaying, carpentry, plastering, painting and decorating, glazing, window fitting, roofing, cladding, tiling, solar panels and multi-trade maintenance. Level 2 is the working tradesman's standard and leads to the Blue Skilled Worker card; Level 3 covers the complex end of the trade and leads to the Gold Advanced Craft card.
Running the work
Gold Supervisor and Black Manager cards
Level 3 for a working foreman, Level 4 for a site supervisor, Level 6 for a site or contracts manager and Level 7 for senior management. Assessed on the programme, the risk assessments and the correspondence you already produce.
Health and safety
Gold Supervisor and Black Manager cards
Level 3 for an advisor, Level 6 for a practitioner, Level 7 for strategy, plus the Level 6 advanced fire safety design diploma. The natural next step once NEBOSH is behind you, because these test what you do rather than what you know.
The list
Every qualification, by trade
Prices are for the whole qualification: registration, your assessor, the visits, the portfolio and the certificate. The CSCS card is applied for separately and CSCS charge their own fee for it.
Bricklaying
Carpentry & Joinery
Painting & Decorating
Plastering
Glass, Glazing & Fenestration
Site Inspection
Roofing & Cladding
Solar Panels
Wall & Floor Tiling
Site Logistics
Plant Operations
Supervision & Management
Health & Safety
Lifting Operations
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 any qualification page. 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 afterwards.
Register and meet your assessor
You are registered with the awarding body and given one named assessor who stays with you throughout. They ring you first 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 why you did it that way and record it against the units. Nothing is staged.
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.
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 a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass.
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
Common questions about NVQs
£850 + VAT at Level 2 and £950 + VAT at Level 3 for the trades. Supervision and management run from £1,145 + VAT at Level 3 to £1,895 + VAT at Level 7, and health and safety from £1,395 + VAT at Level 3 to £2,150 + VAT at Level 7. Every figure is the whole qualification: registration, your own assessor, the visits, the portfolio and the certificate. There is no course fee because there is no course, and no exam fee because there is no exam. The CSCS card is applied for separately and CSCS charge their own fee.
No, and there is no written exam either. Your assessor comes to you, on your own jobs, during your own working week. That is the whole point of an NVQ: it measures what you already do rather than teaching you something you already know.
There is no fixed length, because the pace is set by how quickly the evidence comes together rather than by a timetable. Somebody who is time served, already has photographs and job records, and has a supervisor willing to sign a witness statement often finishes inside a few weeks. Somebody who is newer, or whose current work only covers part of the units, takes longer. Nobody waits for a term to start.
No. They are separate qualifications, not stages. You enter at the level the work you already do can evidence. Doing a level you do not need costs money and months for nothing, and the more expensive version of the same mistake is a site manager taking the Level 4 because it looks safer, ending up with a Supervisor card and having to do the Level 6 anyway.
Level 2 in a trade leads to the Blue Skilled Worker card and Level 3 to the Gold Advanced Craft card. Supervisory qualifications at Level 3 and 4 lead to the Gold Supervisory card, and Level 6 and 7 management qualifications lead to the Black Manager card. Every one of them also needs a pass on the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test at the right level, taken within the two years before you apply, and the card application goes to CSCS rather than to us.
On a GQA registration, yes, in case you need one: a temporary card while your qualification is in progress. It is not a free card of the colour you are working towards. GQA issue it once, it lasts up to twelve months and it cannot be renewed, and they need your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test result report, a passport photograph and your exact address. It is not available on ProQual registrations.
The work itself, mostly. Your assessor photographs what you build, watches you do it and records it against the units. Around that: job records, drawings, method statements, a witness statement from your supervisor, and anything you already hold such as a CITB test pass or an earlier certificate. Most people are further along than they expect, because the evidence is work they have already done.
Yes to both, usually. We invoice employers directly and a squad can go on one invoice with one assessor. Where the company is registered with CITB and in scope, CITB grant support is available for qualifications on their list; the amount and the rules are CITB's and they change, so we will point you at what is current rather than quote a figure that goes out of date.
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