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Health and Safety NVQs
Level 3 to Level 7 occupational health and safety qualifications, plus the Level 6 fire safety diploma, assessed on the work you already do.
The short version
The health and safety route, in plain terms
These are the qualifications people take when NEBOSH is behind them and the job has moved on. NEBOSH is examined and tests what you know. An NVQ is assessed and tests what you do, on your own sites, with your own risk assessments and investigations as the evidence.
Level 3 suits a working health and safety coordinator or advisor and leads to the Gold Supervisor card. Level 6 is the practitioner's qualification and leads to the Black Manager card. Level 7 is strategic, for people setting policy across a business.
The Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Fire Safety Design and Building Risk Management sits alongside them rather than inside them. It is a fire engineering and building safety qualification, written to line up with what the Institution of Fire Engineers look for, and it is a different route with a different destination.
- Assessed on your own risk assessments and investigations
- No college, no classroom and no written exam
- Gold Supervisor or Black Manager CSCS card
- A natural next step after NEBOSH
- Start any week of the year
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 3, the working advisor
Gold CSCS Supervisor card
You carry out risk assessments, inspections and toolbox talks, and health and safety is a real part of your job rather than all of it. The Level 3 Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety is the qualification for that, and it leads to the Gold Supervisor card.
Level 6, the practitioner
Black CSCS Manager card
Health and safety is the job. You set the arrangements, audit them, investigate when things go wrong and answer for it. The Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice leads to the Black Manager card.
Level 6 fire, a different route
No card from the qualification itself
Advanced fire safety design and building risk management, for people working in fire engineering and building safety rather than general health and safety. No CSCS card comes from it, and none is needed for the work; the route to a White card runs through IFE membership.
The list
The qualifications in this trade
The Level 7 is a ProQual diploma rather than an NVQ. It is listed here because that is where people look for it.
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
Health and safety NVQs: common questions
It is not better or worse, it is a different kind of qualification and most people end up with both. NEBOSH is examined: it tests what you know, and it is usually where people start. An NVQ is assessed: it tests what you actually do, using your own risk assessments, inspections and investigations as evidence, and it is what CSCS want for the Gold and Black cards. If you have NEBOSH and experience, the NVQ is the natural next step and the exam is behind you.
If health and safety is part of your job, Level 3. If it is your job, Level 6. If you set policy across a business rather than applying it on a site, Level 7. They are separate qualifications, not stages, so you enter at the level your work evidences rather than working up.
The Level 3 Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety leads to the Gold Supervisory card, with the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test at Specialist Supervisory level. The Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice leads to the Black Manager card, with the Managers and Professionals test. The Level 6 fire safety diploma does not lead to a CSCS card at all, and does not need to: the route to a White Professionally Qualified Person card runs through Institution of Fire Engineers membership.
No, and it is worth being straight about it. The Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Health and Safety Leadership and Management is a ProQual diploma, Ofqual reference 603/6851/2, not an NVQ. People search for it as an NVQ because that is the word they know, and it sits in the same family and is assessed the same way, but the certificate says diploma.
£1,395 + VAT at Level 3, £1,850 + VAT at Level 6, and £2,150 + VAT at Level 7. The Level 6 fire safety diploma is £1,850 + VAT. Each figure is the whole qualification: registration, your own assessor, the visits, the portfolio and the certificate. No course fee, no exam fee.
No, and there is no written exam. Your assessor works from the health and safety work you are already doing.
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