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NVQ Level 2 Carpentry (Wood Occupations)
The qualification behind the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card for carpenters and joiners, assessed on the jobs you are already on. Site carpentry, shopfitting, roof structures, timber frame or bench joinery, no college and no exam. Register any week and go at your own pace.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 2 NVQ Wood Occupations different
About this qualification
The Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Wood Occupations (Construction) is the qualification CSCS accept for the Blue Skilled Worker card, and the one most carpenters and joiners who learned on the tools hold instead of a college certificate. It is what most people mean by an NVQ Level 2 in carpentry and joinery. It is not taught. It records, against the national occupational standards, the work you already do: first fix and second fix, structural carcassing, hanging doors and fitting fire doors, shopfitting, roof structures, timber frame, or making joinery on the bench, done safely and to the drawings.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications on five pathways: site carpentry, shopfitting site work, shopfitting bench work, pre-assembled roof structures and timber frame erection. GQA do not offer a bench joinery pathway, so architectural joinery, making doors, windows, frames and stairs in a joinery shop, is awarded by ProQual AB. We are an approved centre with both, so you are registered with whichever body awards the pathway that matches your work, and the certificate says so. The Blue card is the same whichever you take.
Assessment is a portfolio of photographs, job sheets, drawings and witness testimony from your own jobs, an observation of you working 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 fixing or making joinery 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 job sheet, a drawing and a witness testimony from the site manager each prove
- Which pathway your week evidences, site carpentry, shopfitting, roof structures, timber frame or bench joinery, and which units give you the most credits for the least effort
- Where the Level 3 Wood Occupations sits, and whether the bespoke work you do already points at it
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Wood Occupations (Construction), certificated by GQA or ProQual depending on pathway
- Eligibility for the Blue CSCS Skilled Worker card, once you have passed the health and safety test, issued by GQA under their own CSCS card scheme
- A temporary CSCS card on registration on the five GQA pathways, in case you need one while you complete
- A Level 2 that never expires, which is what main contractors ask for before they let a carpenter through the gate
Who is it for?
Site carpenters, joiners, shopfitters, roof truss and timber frame erectors and bench joiners who learned on the tools and hold no formal qualification, self employed carpenters 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 cut, carry and help but a carpenter finishes the work, talk to us first, because you need enough of your own work to evidence.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements. What you do need is live carpentry or joinery work to evidence from, because every unit is assessed on real jobs: your photographs, your job sheets, the drawings you worked to, your site manager's word. 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 carpentry or joinery you are on and what you can evidence, and it shows you the pathway that fits, who awards it (GQA, or ProQual for bench joinery), 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
Three units are mandatory whichever pathway you take, worth 10 credits. Site carpentry adds at least three of its six units (60 credits minimum, 69 with the first fix, second fix and carcassing units most carpenters evidence). Shopfitting site work adds at least three of five (64 minimum). Shopfitting bench work adds two units and at least one option (55 minimum). Pre-assembled roof structures adds three units (69) and timber frame erection adds two (47). The GQA qualification carries 292 guided learning hours and 470 hours total qualification time. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from your own work.
The three units everyone completes (10 credits)
- A/503/1170 Conforming to general health, safety and welfare in the workplace (2 credits)
- J/503/1169 Conforming to productive working practices in the workplace (3)
- F/503/1171 Moving, handling and storing resources in the workplace (5)
Site carpentry, at least three of these six
- M/650/0561 Installing first fixing components in the workplace (16)
- R/650/0562 Installing second fixing components in the workplace (23)
- T/650/0563 Erecting structural carcassing components in the workplace (20)
- Y/650/0564 Maintaining non-structural carpentry work in the workplace (14)
- F/650/0567 Installing fire resisting timber door assemblies and doorsets in the workplace (69)
- J/650/0450 Setting up and using transportable cutting and shaping machines in the workplace (26)
- The pathway most site carpenters take. First fix, second fix and carcassing is the usual three
Shopfitting site work, or shopfitting bench work
- Site work, at least three of five: A/650/0565 Installing shopfitting frames and finishings (26), D/650/0566 Installing shopfitting fitments (13), H/650/0568 Installing shopfronts and finishings (15), F/650/0567 fire resisting door assemblies (69), J/650/0450 transportable machines (26)
- Bench work, both mandatory: A/650/0448 Marking out from setting out details for routine shopfitting products (12) and D/650/0449 Manufacturing routine shopfitting products in the workplace (19)
- Bench work, at least one option: Y/650/0447 Producing setting out details for routine shopfitting products (14) or J/650/0450 transportable machines (26)
- For fitters on retail, bar and office fit-out, and for the shop that makes the counters, fitments and frames
Pre-assembled roof structures, or timber frame erection
- Roof structures, all three: R/650/2499 Erecting timber roof structures in the workplace (23), R/506/3929 Slinging and hand signalling the movement of suspended loads (10), L/650/0641 Erecting roof structure carcassing components (26)
- Timber frame, both: R/651/5747 Erecting timber walls and floors in the workplace (14) and R/650/2499 Erecting timber roof structures (23)
- For truss and panel erectors on housing sites. No optional units on either pathway
Architectural joinery, the bench joinery route
- Awarded by ProQual AB under qualification number 601/7664/7, because GQA do not offer a bench joinery pathway. The three mandatory units are the same
- Both pathway units: M/506/4974 Marking out from setting out details for routine architectural joinery products and A/506/4976 Manufacturing routine architectural joinery products in the workplace
- Plus one option: K/506/4973 Producing setting out details for routine architectural joinery products, or T/506/5172 Setting up and using transportable cutting and shaping machines
- For joiners making doors, windows, frames, stairs and fitted joinery in a joinery shop. ProQual publish guided learning hours rather than credits for these units. Same assessment method, same assessor, same Blue card. The temporary card on registration is a GQA arrangement and is not available on this pathway
Method of assessment
How the Level 2 site carpentry 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 work 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 which of the six pathways fits the work you actually do, whether you have enough live work to evidence it, and whether the bespoke work you do already points at the Level 3 instead.
2. Register with GQA or ProQual
We register you with the body that awards your pathway: GQA under 610/0123/8 for the five GQA pathways, ProQual under 601/7664/7 for architectural joinery. On the GQA pathways 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 bare opening or the sawn timber to the finished job, job sheets and day sheets, the drawings and schedules you worked to, delivery notes, witness testimony from the site manager, the RAMS and toolbox talks you signed, the CoSHH sheets for adhesives and finishes. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Workplace observation
Your assessor comes to the job and watches you work: setting out, cutting, fixing, hanging and finishing, and the machines you set up and use, 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 fixing into that substrate, fire door certification and gap tolerances, moisture and movement in timber, what you do when the drawing will not work.
6. Certificate, then the card
Internal quality assurance, then the awarding body issues the certificate. Pass the CITB Operatives test, or GQA's own health and safety test, and we apply to GQA for your Blue Skilled Worker card.
After the qualification
Getting the Blue card, not just the certificate
The qualification is only half of it. 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. On the GQA pathways, 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.
On the five GQA pathways 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. On the ProQual architectural joinery pathway the card follows the certificate too.
- 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 on the GQA pathways, in case you need one, posted by GQA
- The Level 3 Wood Occupations next, if the bespoke work is already yours
Level 2 NVQ Wood Occupations FAQs
Yes. Wood Occupations (Construction) is the formal title of the carpentry and joinery NVQ at Level 2. Site carpentry is the pathway most people mean when they say carpentry NVQ, and the other pathways cover shopfitting, roof structures, timber frame and bench joinery. CSCS accept every pathway for the Blue Skilled Worker card.
No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the carpentry or joinery 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 carpenters 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, valid five years. 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 the card application, which we make to GQA for you. The Level 3 gets the Gold Skilled Worker card (Advanced Craft).
On the five GQA pathways, 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. On the ProQual architectural joinery pathway the card follows the certificate.
The one your jobs already evidence. First fix, second fix and carcassing on site is site carpentry. Fitting out shops, bars and offices is shopfitting site work, and making the counters and fitments is shopfitting bench work. Erecting trusses or timber frame panels on housing sites is pre-assembled roof structures or timber frame erection. Making doors, windows, frames and stairs in a joinery shop is architectural joinery, which is the bench joinery pathway and is awarded by ProQual because GQA do not offer it. 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 bare opening or the sawn timber to the finished work, job sheets or day sheets, the drawings and door schedules you worked to, delivery notes, witness testimony from the site manager, the RAMS and toolbox talk records you signed, and the CoSHH sheets for adhesives and finishes. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing. Evidence can come from more than one job, so anything you cannot evidence yet is something we plan with you and your employer around the next one.
Yes. Employers can be invoiced and can put several carpenters through as one booking. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and we check what applies before you commit. Self employed carpenters 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 site carpenter who has been first and second fixing for years without a card 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.