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Level 3 NVQ Glazing
The qualification behind the Gold CSCS Skilled Worker card for glaziers, assessed on the jobs you already lead and the specialist glazing you already do. Curtain wall, balustrades, shop fronts, overhead, structural or fire glazing, no college and no exam. Register any week and go at your own pace.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 3 NVQ Glazing different
About this qualification
The Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Glazing is the qualification behind the Gold Skilled Worker CSCS card for glaziers, the card CSCS used to call Advanced Craft. It is not taught. It records, against the national occupational standards, the glazing you already lead: installing glass into glazing systems, running the glazing work at the site so it is safe, to programme and to the specification, and promoting health and safety among the glaziers working with you. GQA describe the Level 3 glazier as someone who often takes a supervisory role with less experienced workers and works closely with customers.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications as a single pathway with two groups of options, so the certificate is built around the glazing you actually do. From the first group you evidence at least one of investigating and resolving technical problems at the glazing site, glass cutting in a range of glass types, or maintaining glazing systems. From the second group you evidence at least one specialist installation: window film, glass interiors, curtain wall systems, balustrades, overhead glazing, shop fronts, stair and floor glazing, structural glass, toughened glass assemblies, security glazing or glass blocks. Anything else you evidence is listed on the certificate as additional credits.
Assessment is a portfolio of photographs, works orders, job sheets, RAMS and witness testimony from your own jobs, an observation of you leading and glazing and a professional discussion with your assessor, most of it from your phone and by video call. GQA do not assess a Level 3 with checklists: the evidence comes from your real current work. There is no fixed duration: you register any week and finish as quickly as your jobs produce the evidence.
- Nothing new, if you already lead the glazing on site and do the specialist work. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence leading a job: what a RAMS you briefed, a problem you resolved, a programme you kept to and a witness testimony from the site manager each prove
- Which specialist glazing units your week evidences, from curtain wall and balustrades to shop fronts, overhead and structural glass, and which give you the most credits for the least effort
- Where the Level 2 Glazing sits, and whether your work is above it or still inside it
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Glazing, certificated by GQA, with the specialist glazing you evidenced listed on it
- Eligibility for the Gold CSCS Skilled Worker card for glaziers, 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 3 that never expires, which is what main contractors and specialist glazing companies ask for from the person leading the job
Who is it for?
Lead glaziers, chargehands and working supervisors who run the glazing on site and hold no formal qualification at this level, specialist glaziers on curtain wall, balustrades, shop fronts, overhead, structural, security or fire glazing, and anyone whose Gold card or old Industry Accreditation card has run out without a qualification behind it. If you glaze to a good standard but someone else leads the job and sorts the problems, the Level 2 and the Blue card are the honest fit.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements and you do not need the Level 2 first. What you do need is live glazing work to evidence from, at a level where you lead the job: your RAMS and briefings, your decisions when the glass or the frame is wrong, your specialist installations, your site manager's word. If you already hold the Level 2, the install unit it shares with this qualification does not have to be assessed again while you are still competent. The initial assessment below confirms the level 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 specialist glazing you are on and what you can evidence, and it shows you whether the Level 3 fits, which option units you can evidence 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, worth 19 credits. You then evidence at least 7 credits from the first option group (technical problems, glass cutting, maintaining glazing systems) and at least 6 credits from the second (the specialist installations), 32 credits minimum. It is a Certificate rather than a Diploma because it is the smaller size of qualification, 32 credits at its minimum where a Diploma starts at 37. 130 guided learning hours, 320 hours total qualification time. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from your own work.
The three units everyone completes (19 credits)
- J/601/5080 Lead the glazing work at glazing sites (8 credits)
- T/600/7363 Promote and maintain health and safety in a glass or glass related working environment (4)
- H/601/5068 Install glass into glazing system (7), the Level 2 install unit, not reassessed if you already hold it
Group 1: pick at least 7 credits from these
- M/601/5087 Investigate and resolve technical problems at the glazing site (7)
- D/601/5327 Glass cutting in a range of glass types (8)
- A/601/5075 Maintain glazing systems (8)
Group 2: pick at least 6 credits from these specialist installations
- T/601/5091 Apply window film to glass (6)
- Y/601/5097 Glaze glass interiors (6)
- L/601/5114 Glaze glass curtain wall systems (6)
- T/601/5107 Glaze glass balustrades (6)
- D/601/5067 Glaze glass overhead installations (7)
- Y/601/5116 Glaze glass shop fronts (7)
- H/601/5118 Glaze glass stair and floor installations (6)
- J/601/5127 Glaze structural glass installations (6)
- J/601/5130 Glaze toughened glass assemblies (6)
- R/601/5132 Glaze security glazing installations (6)
- Y/601/5133 Glaze glass blocks (6)
- Anything you evidence beyond the minimum is listed on the certificate as additional credits
Method of assessment
How the Level 3 glazing 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 lead, your assessor watches you run the work and glaze, 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 you lead the glazing on site or work under someone who does, which specialist installations you can evidence, whether you have enough live work, and whether the Level 2 is the honest fit instead.
2. Register with GQA
We register you with GQA under qualification number 500/8803/8. 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 each installation at stages, works orders and job sheets, the drawings and glazing specifications you worked to, the RAMS and method statements you briefed, delivery notes, records of technical problems you resolved and what you changed, witness testimony from the site manager, toolbox talks you gave, CoSHH sheets for sealants and structural silicones. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Workplace observation
Your assessor comes to the job and watches you lead and glaze: briefing the team, checking the glass and the system, controlling the lift, setting, fixing and sealing, and dealing with what goes wrong, and records what they see against the standard.
5. Professional discussion
A recorded conversation about why you run the job the way you do. It covers the knowledge a photograph cannot show: the structural and safety glazing requirements behind a specification, why you chose a method or a sealant, how you handled a unit that did not fit or a frame that was 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 Gold Skilled Worker card, valid five years.
After the qualification
Getting the Gold card, not just the certificate
The NVQ is only half of what the card scheme asks for. Since 2017 the CSCS cards for glaziers have been issued by GQA under the CSCS partner card scheme, not by CSCS direct. The Gold Skilled Worker card needs the Level 3 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. 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 Gold card: that follows the certificate.
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test at Operatives level, or GQA's own test, booked with us
- Gold 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 Occupational Work Supervision next, if you supervise more than you glaze
Level 3 NVQ Glazing FAQs
Yes. Level 3 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as A levels. It is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can lead the glazing on site rather than that you have studied it, which is what the card scheme and most contractors want from the person running the job.
No. If you already lead the glazing on site and do the specialist work, you go straight to the Level 3. The Level 2 install unit is part of this qualification, and if you already hold the Level 2 it is not assessed again while you are still competent. If you are not leading the job yet, the Level 2 is the one you can evidence now and the Blue card follows it.
No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the glazing you already lead, through photographs and documents from your own jobs, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor.
The Gold Skilled Worker card for glaziers, the card CSCS used to call Advanced Craft, valid five years. For the glass and glazing industry the card is issued by GQA under the CSCS partner card scheme rather than by CSCS direct, and it carries the CSCS logo. You need the Level 3 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 an application to GQA.
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 Gold card: the Gold card follows the certificate.
The ones your jobs already evidence. You need at least one from the first group, which is technical problems, glass cutting or maintaining glazing systems, and at least one specialist installation from the second, which runs from window film and interiors through curtain wall, balustrades, overhead, shop fronts, stair and floor, structural, toughened assemblies and security glazing to glass blocks. Most lead glaziers evidence more than the minimum without trying, and the extra units are listed on the certificate. The initial assessment on this page works it out from what you click.
Photographs of each installation at stages, works orders and job sheets, the drawings and glazing specifications you worked to, the RAMS and method statements you briefed, delivery notes, records of the technical problems you resolved, witness testimony from the site manager, toolbox talk records, and the CoSHH sheets for sealants and structural silicones. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing.
Yes. Employers can be invoiced and can put several glaziers through as one booking, at both levels. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and we check what applies before you commit. Self employed glaziers pay direct, with interest free instalments if you want them.
£950 + 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 an experienced glazier leading structural and curtain wall glazing 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.