SKILLcard will require new health and safety test
19th June 2019
UK: From September, SKILLcard and CSCS card applicants will need to complete the CITB health, safety and environment test or approved equivalent.
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.
The change will take place on September 2, from which time all applicants will be required to pass the CITB health, safety and environment test or equivalent.
SKILLcard’s head of certification, Duncan Sibbald said: “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.”
As a CSCS partner card scheme for the 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.
