NVQ Level 6 Construction Site Management

Yes. Level 6 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as a bachelor's degree. It is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can do the job rather than that you have studied it, which is exactly what CSCS and most employers want from a site manager.

No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the site you already manage, through a portfolio of your own documents, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor.

The one that matches the sites you run now, because that is where the evidence comes from. General contracting and civils is Building and Civil Engineering. Term maintenance and resurfacing is Highways. Housebuilding is Residential Development. Energy efficiency and PAS 2035 work is Retrofit. Heritage, demolition and tunnelling have their own pathways with ProQual. The initial assessment on this page works it out from what you click.

Both are Ofqual regulated NVQ Diplomas at Level 6 in Construction Site Management and both are accepted by CSCS for the Black card. GQA award four pathways and ProQual award seven. We register you with GQA wherever GQA offer your pathway, because GQA issue a temporary CSCS card on registration. We use ProQual only for the three pathways GQA do not offer: traditional and heritage building, demolition and tunnelling.

The Black Manager card, valid five years. You need the Level 6 certificate plus a pass in the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test for Managers and Professionals, or GQA's own health and safety test, within the last two years, then the card application, which we make to GQA for you. If you take a Level 7 instead, the card is the same.

On the four 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 Black card: the Black card follows the certificate. On the three ProQual pathways the card follows the certificate.

No. You need it for the card, not the qualification. If you want the temporary card on registration you will need the Managers and Professionals test result first, so most people book the test in the first week. We can book it for you.

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 managers finish inside a year alongside the job, and someone with a full site file and the time to sit down with it can be much quicker. It depends on how fast your projects produce the evidence and how much of it you already have.

Documents you already produce: programmes and progress reports, risk assessments and method statements you have approved, inductions, toolbox talk records, meeting minutes, cost and procurement reports, quality inspections, handover documents, plus photographs and video. Your assessor maps each one to a unit and tells you what is missing.

A recorded conversation with your assessor, usually an hour or two across the qualification, covering the knowledge criteria: the legislation behind your health and safety systems, why you chose a work method, how you controlled a programme slip. It replaces a written exam and covers everything a document cannot show.

Possibly not. If you already own budgets, make procurement decisions, run more than one project and influence how the business bids, your week may evidence the Level 7 Senior Management instead, at £1,895 + VAT and the same Black card. The initial assessment asks about exactly that and tells you which is the honest fit before you pay.

If you run a work package or a gang under a site manager, the Level 4 Site Supervision is the right level and the Gold Supervisory card. If you run the site, the programme and the subcontractors, this is the one. If you are not sure, the initial assessment will tell you.

CITB grant funding may be available where your employer pays the levy, and ELCAS funding if you are a service leaver or veteran. We check what applies to you before you commit, and we never ask you to pay for something a grant would have covered.

Yes. Interest free instalments are available on every qualification, and employers can be invoiced. Ask when you register.

Yes. Group registrations are common on frameworks and large sites, and we assess on site so nobody leaves the project. Tell us how many and which pathways and we will price it as one booking.

You carry on from the next one. Evidence can come from more than one project and your assessor plans the units around what your next site will produce. Registration with the awarding body runs long enough to cover it.

It carries the awarding body that awarded your pathway: GQA on the four GQA pathways, ProQual on heritage, demolition and tunnelling. Both are Ofqual regulated and both appear on the register CSCS check.

No. GQA Qualifications and ProQual AB are the awarding bodies. Acadame is the approved centre that assesses you, and a CITB approved training organisation, which is an endorsement of how we deliver and assess rather than the body that awards the qualification.

No, SMSTS is a separate five day CITB course. Most sites ask managers to hold both. We run SMSTS at our centres and online, and can arrange it alongside the NVQ.

This qualification is the route. Industry Accreditation cards expired at the end of 2024 and cannot be renewed, so a manager without a Level 6 or 7 needs one to keep a Black card. Register with us on a GQA pathway and the temporary card covers you while you complete it.

£1,445 + 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 manager already running projects that is the normal route. There is no set length. You are assessed on the work you are already responsible for, so the pace is set by how quickly the evidence comes together rather than by a timetable. People who already keep good records often finish far sooner than they expect. Nobody is held back waiting for a term to start.

Your assessor comes to you, and works from the job you are already doing. They look at the records you already produce, the programme, the risk assessments, the meeting notes and the correspondence, and talk through the decisions behind them. Between visits you upload evidence and your assessor tells you what is still missing. There is no college, no classroom and no written exam.