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Curtain Walling Installation: Level 2 NVQ Certificate
The qualification GQA ask for on a Level 2 curtain wall installer card, assessed on the facade packages you are already fixing. Awarded by GQA, who also issue the card. No college and no exam. Register any week and go at your own pace.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 2 NVQ Curtain Wall Installation different
About this qualification
The Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Curtain Wall Installation is the qualification behind the Blue Skilled Worker card for curtain wall installers, and the one GQA name by number when a Level 2 curtain wall installer applies for a card. It is not taught. It records, against the national occupational standards, the fixing you already do: reading the drawings, the specification and the method statement, confirming what the installation needs, handling and positioning the components, fixing brackets, mullions and transoms, installing the infill units and pressure plates, capping and sealing, and the checks and handover at the end.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications, the awarding organisation for the glass and fenestration trades and, since 2017, the body that issues the CSCS card for those trades. It is a Certificate rather than a Diploma, so it is smaller than the Level 2 Fenestration Installation: five mandatory units, then options worth at least 14 credits, 32 credits in all against 40. There is no pathway to choose. The main option is installing curtain walling systems; installers on facetted, structurally glazed or unitised systems can evidence that unit instead or as well.
Assessment is a portfolio of photographs, drawings, delivery notes and witness testimony from your own packages, an observation of you fixing 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 packages produce the evidence.
- Nothing new, if you are already installing curtain walling to a commercial standard. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence a facade package properly: what a photograph at each stage, a marked up drawing, a delivery note and a witness testimony from the site manager each prove
- Which options your week evidences, stick systems or facetted, structurally glazed and unitised systems, and which give you the most credits for the least effort
- Where the Level 3 sits for curtain wall installers, and whether setting the datums and running the package already points at it
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Curtain Wall Installation, certificated by GQA under the number GQA name for the card
- Eligibility for the Blue Skilled Worker card for curtain wall installers, 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, though GQA want it completed within the last five years for a full curtain wall installer card, which is what facade contractors and main contractors now check
Who is it for?
Curtain wall installers, facade installers and cladding fixers on stick, unitised or structurally glazed systems who hold no formal qualification, installers whose Blue card is up for renewal under GQA's five year rule, and anyone whose old Industry Accreditation card has run out without a qualification behind it. If you unload, move and hold but someone else fixes, 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 curtain wall work to evidence from, because every unit is assessed on real packages: your photographs, the drawings and method statements you worked to, the site's word. Most people are assessed on the package they are on now. 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 and what you can evidence, and it shows you the units that fit 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
Five units are mandatory, worth 18 credits: health and safety, communicating and working with others, handling and positioning components, confirming what the installation needs, and knowledge of the drawings, specifications, method statements and safety glazing for curtain walling. You then evidence at least 11 credits from group 1 (installing curtain walling systems, facetted or unitised systems, or site preparation) and at least 3 from group 2 (infill units, post installation activity, or knowledge of curtain walling systems). 32 credits minimum, 182 guided learning hours, 320 hours total qualification time. It is a Certificate, so it is smaller than the Level 2 Fenestration Installation Diploma at 40 credits. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from your own work.
The five units everyone completes (18 credits)
- A/600/7624 Maintain health and safety in the fenestration installation working environment (4 credits)
- A/600/7364 Communicating and working with others in the glass and related working environments (3)
- K/600/7649 Locate, transport, handle and position materials and components in fenestration installation (4)
- Y/600/6691 Identify and confirm installation requirements in glass and related work (4)
- L/618/6364 Knowledge of drawings, specifications, method statements and safety glazing relating to curtain walling installation (3)
Pick at least 11 credits from these: the installation
- R/600/6687 Install curtain walling systems (11)
- Y/602/4978 Install facetted, structurally glazed or unitised curtain walling systems (7, a Level 3 unit)
- A/600/7638 Prepare the site, equipment and tools for fenestration installation (4)
- Install curtain walling systems meets the minimum on its own. Unitised and structurally glazed installers can pair that unit with site preparation instead, or evidence all three
Pick at least 3 credits from these: infill, handover and knowledge
- F/600/6684 Install infill units into curtain walling systems (4)
- K/600/6677 Post curtain walling activity (3)
- Y/600/6660 Knowledge of curtain walling systems (3)
- Any one meets the minimum. Most installers evidence the infill units they glaze anyway
Method of assessment
How the curtain walling NVQ on-site assessment works
Competence based, which means no exam and no written test. You build a portfolio of evidence from the packages you are fixing, your assessor watches you install 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 stick, unitised or structurally glazed, whether you have enough live work to evidence it, and whether setting the datums and running the package already points at the Level 3 instead.
2. Register with GQA
We register you with GQA under qualification number 603/7248/5. 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 packages
Photographs of the facade at stages, from brackets and datums to mullions, transoms, infill and capping, the drawings, specification and method statement you worked to, delivery notes for the system components and glass, witness testimony from the site manager or the facade package manager, 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 site and watches you install: checking the drawing against the structure, fixing brackets, setting mullions and transoms to line and level, fitting infill units and pressure plates, capping and sealing, 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: what the method statement and the drawings tell you, safety glazing, why the tolerances are what they are, movement and weathering, what you do when the slab edge is out.
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.
After the qualification
Getting the Blue card, not just the certificate
The NVQ is only half of what the card needs, and for curtain wall installers GQA are specific. Since 2017 the CSCS card for curtain wall installers is issued by GQA rather than by CSCS direct: it is the Blue CSCS Q-Card, it carries the CSCS logo and it is checked the same way at the gate. GQA's application form says that since May 2021 a Level 2 curtain wall installer card needs this qualification, 603/7248/5, completed within the last five years, 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. If the qualification is older than five years, GQA issue a temporary card for twelve months instead. We book the right test 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: it lasts up to twelve months and the Blue card 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 Fenestration Installation with the curtain walling units next, if you already set the datums and run the package
Level 2 NVQ Curtain Wall Installation FAQs
No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the curtain walling you already install, through photographs and documents from your own packages, 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. A live facade package produces most of the evidence in the weeks you are on it, and someone with a phone full of photographs from recent packages can be quicker.
The Blue Skilled Worker card for curtain wall installers, valid five years. For the fenestration trades the card is issued by GQA as the Blue CSCS Q-Card, which carries the CSCS logo and is checked the same way on site. GQA's application form names this qualification, 603/7248/5, as the one a Level 2 curtain wall installer needs, completed within the last five years, 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.
GQA's rule since May 2021 is that a full curtain wall installer card needs the qualification completed within the last five years; if it is older, GQA issue a temporary card for twelve months instead. Registering on this qualification again is one route. GQA also offer a Level 2 Award in Continued Competence in Curtain Wall Installation for installers who already hold the qualification and can show they have kept their skills current. Tell us which card and which qualification you hold and we will tell you which route your renewal needs.
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: it lasts up to twelve months and the Blue card follows the certificate.
Photographs of the facade at stages, from brackets and datums to mullions, transoms, infill and capping, the drawings, specification and method statement you worked to, delivery notes for the system components and glass, witness testimony from the site manager or the facade package manager, 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 package. Evidence can come from more than one site and your assessor plans the units around what your next package 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. Facade contractors can be invoiced and can put a whole gang through as one booking, Level 2 and Level 3 together. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and we check what applies before you commit. Self employed installers 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 curtain wall fixer already installing on site 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.