NVQ Level 7 Construction Senior Management

Yes. Level 7 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as a master'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 what CSCS and most clients want from a senior manager.

The Level 6 is assessed on running a site, one project at a time. The Level 7 is assessed on controlling projects or budgets across the business: procurement, tenders, teams of managers, advice to clients and directors. If that is your week, the Level 7 records it. If you run one site, the Level 6 is the honest fit. Both get the same Black Manager card, and the initial assessment on this page tells you which before you pay.

Production if you control how projects are delivered: programme, resources, design coordination, quality and handover. Commercial if you control budgets and contract entitlement: CVRs, valuations, change, procurement and tenders. Both share the same ten core units and the same list of options, so a contracts manager who does both picks the pathway with the most evidence and takes the other unit as an option.

No. There is no classroom and no exam. Everything is assessed on the projects and contracts you already control, through a portfolio of your own documents, an observation of you working and a professional discussion with your assessor, almost all of it by Zoom or Teams.

The Black Manager card, valid five years. You need the Level 7 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. The Level 6 gets the same 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 Black card: the Black 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 senior managers finish inside a year alongside the job, and someone with a full project file and the time to sit down with it can be much quicker.

Documents you already produce: project reviews and board papers, procurement strategies and tender evaluations, CVRs and cash flow forecasts, contracts you negotiated, recruitment and appraisal records, meeting minutes and actions, advice and recommendations you gave to clients. 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 contract law behind a decision, why you chose a procurement route, how you handled a dispute or a team issue. It replaces a written exam and covers everything a document cannot show.

If you still control projects or budgets, yes: the Level 7 is assessed on that. If your role is board level only, setting policy and resourcing it rather than controlling projects, the CITB Directors' Role for Health and Safety and the Level 7 Strategic Health and Safety Leadership qualification may fit better. The initial assessment asks about exactly that.

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 in regional businesses, and we assess remotely so nobody leaves the job. 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 contract will produce. Registration with GQA runs long enough to cover it.

No. GQA Qualifications is the awarding body. 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.

This qualification, or the Level 6, 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 and the temporary card covers you while you complete it.

£1,895 + 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 contracts or senior manager already running several 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.