NVQ Level 3 Painting and Decorating

Yes. Level 3 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as A levels and an advanced apprenticeship, and CSCS accept it for the Gold Skilled Worker card (Advanced Craft). It is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can lead the job rather than that you have studied it.

The Level 2 is assessed on preparing and painting by brush and roller to a commercial standard on your own. The Level 3 is assessed on leading the job, confirming the method, the materials and the resources, and on the specialist work: wallcoverings plus spray, complex stencils, complex surfaces or specialised papers. You do not need the Level 2 first. If that is your week, the Level 3 records it. If someone else sets out and takes the lead, or you do not hang paper, the Level 2 is the honest fit, and the initial assessment on this page tells you which before you pay.

No college, no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the work you already lead, through photographs and documents from your own jobs, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor. There is no fixed duration: you register any week and the qualification is led by you. Most decorators finish inside a few months alongside the job.

The Gold Skilled Worker card (Advanced Craft), valid five years. 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 the card application, which we make to GQA for you. The Level 2 gets the Blue Skilled Worker card.

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. From the wallcoverings group, standard and foundation papers if you hang domestic and commercial papers, or non-standard width if you hang wide vinyls and contract wallcoverings. From the specialist group, airless spray if you spray ceilings and walls on site, complex stencils, wallcoverings to complex surfaces such as stairwells, curves and ceilings, or specialised papers such as silks, grasscloths and murals. You need at least one from each group, and the initial assessment on this page works it out from what you click.

Photographs of each job at stages, from the surface as found through preparation to the finished room, papered wall or sprayed ceiling, job sheets or day sheets, the specification and colour schedule you worked to, the method statements and material orders you confirmed, delivery notes, witness testimony from the site manager, the RAMS and toolbox talk records you signed or gave, and the CoSHH sheets for paints, pastes and solvents. 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 decorators through as one booking. A CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and we check what applies before you commit. Self employed decorators 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 painter and decorator doing specialist and high-end finishes 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.