SKILLcard support enforce H&S requirements
In the next of a series of moves to enhance the robustness of cardholder qualifications, CSCS and SKILLcard are requiring all applicants to have satisfactorily completed the CITB health, safety and environment test or approved equivalent. This will now be the only way to show satisfactory evidence of health and safety compliance.
Applicants are normally required to pass the CITB health, safety and environment test or equivalent within the last two years. However, if an applicant has achieved an SVQ or NVQ within the last two years, they currently do not have to sit the CITB test. This is because NVQ’s or SVQ’s have included separate relevant learning modules as part of the syllabus and therefore were deemed a suitable equivalent to the health and safety requirements. This will no longer be the case.
SKILLcard’s dead of Certification, Duncan Sibbald says: “By introducing this change to our acceptance criteria for applicants gaining a SKILLcard, we are demonstrating our continued support for meeting the CLC’s Industrial Strategy vision.”
The change will take place on 2nd September 2019, from which time all applicants will be required to pass the CITB health, safety and environment test or equivalent.
As a CSCS partner card scheme for the mechanical sector of the building engineering services industry, SKILLcard must meet the requirements of the Industrial Strategy for Construction. Overseen by The Construction Leadership Council it requires that SKILLcards are only issued to applicants who hold nationally recognised construction qualifications and have passed a separate health and safety element, it is this separate health and safety element that SKILLcard are now enforcing.
In other news, SKILLcard applications can now be made online at the link below.
Picture Credit: Getty Images/milanvirjevic
