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FAQs

FAQ's

The questions we get asked most, answered straight. No jargon, no run around. Just what you need to know about NVQs, funding, and getting your CSCS card sorted.

What's an NVQ in construction?

An NVQ is a vocational qualification that allows you to demonstrate your competence in your occupational area. No exams, no classroom. Your assessor gathers evidence of you performing your role, supports you in presenting this and signs you off. It’s what big contractors and site managers want to see, and it’s ultimately what gets you a CSCS card in your trade, keeping you on site.

Because holding a CSCS card is the way to show you are competent in your role, and the majority of construction sites require this as a minimum standard. Grandfather rights have ended, making the NVQ route to CSCS competence the only way to get a skilled, supervisory or management card.

Yes, as you will not be restricted to which jobs/sites you can work on once you hold the relevant trade, supervisory or management NVQ. Bigger sites, bigger contractors, more options and more pay. For example, Lewis Steinborn finished his Level 2 Fitted Interiors NVQ with us and said he’s “rammed with work right now”. That’s the whole point.

If you plan to keep working in construction, yes. You do the qualification once, and it pays you back on every job after. Better cards. Bigger contractors. Better pay. Most of our learners tell us the same thing, they wish they’d done it sooner.

Level 2 proves you can do your trade competently. Level 3 proves you can do it well and/or supervise the basics. Level 6 is for site managers running projects. Level 7 is for site managers who the buck stops with, the hirers and firers. Most workers start at Level 2; you only need higher levels if your role does.

No. Apprenticeships are for people who are new entrants into the trade, you learn the job from scratch. On Site Assessment and Training (OSAT) NVQs are for people who have been in the job for at least two years and need to demonstrate their competence and need a little support to get them over the line.

For most workers, nothing. We’ve got funding pots covering construction NVQs across Greater Manchester and Greater London, insulation NVQs across England and construction for CITB-registered companies across the UK. Not eligible? You can split the fee into four payments of 25%. Send us your details and we’ll tell you straight away what you’d actually pay and by when.

Often, yes. For construction trades – if you’re 19 or over, live in Greater Manchester or Greater London there’s likely a fully-funded route open to you. Likewise, if you work in an insulation occupation (loft, under floor, internal/external wall, framed sections, cavity wall, room in roof), are 19 or over and live anywhere in England, there’s likely a fully-funded route open to you. If you work for a CITB-registered company then we can help them access funding for your NVQ too – give us a call, we’ll check in 5 minutes.

If your company is CITB-registered, your company can claim at least £600 back for the NVQ you complete. That’s also still applicable on top of any government or devolved authority funding we may have for you. Most CITB-registered companies don’t claim what they are owed – we’ll show them how to do this and do the paperwork with them.

You self-fund or your employer pays for you and we can split into four equal payments if you/they wish. We’ll never push you into something you can’t afford. If funding opens up when you’re in the middle of your NVQ, we’ll flag it, plenty of self-funders end up at least partly reimbursed.

Because it comes from different pots including government departments, devolved authorities such as Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater London Authority (in our case), and from CITB, and each have their own rules. Our job is to make sense of it for you – tell us your postcode, age and trade and we’ll match you to the funding that fits or tell you straight if there isn’t one and do our best to make it cost-effective.

If you’re fully-funded, no. If you’re self-funding, the first 25% gets you started and the rest is paid in three more instalments as you go. No deposit traps, no surprise charges. Of course, if you wish to pay in full then this option is open.

We come to you or if you’re great at collecting evidence of your work, you send over your evidence to us. If we come to you, our assessor will spend some time with you, see how you do the job and gather evidence in their way that may include video evidence, photographic evidence or recorded discussions and question and answer sessions. If you send evidence to us, you play the role of movie director and take videos and photos of your work and send to your assessor – don’t worry though about what footage you need, your assessor will tell you everything you need. Whatever works best for you, and minimised your downtime then we’ll roll with that.

No. That’s the whole point. You don’t down tools, you don’t sit in a classroom, you don’t lose a day’s pay. Your site is your classroom. We’ve been doing it this way for over a decade, and it works because real construction work is the evidence.

Most workers finish an NVQ in 6-12 weeks if they play their part in the evidence gathering process. There are performance and knowledge elements to an NVQ and if you are willing to get stuck in and help your assessor, then they will be able to piece up your portfolio pretty quickly. If you/they are struggling to get the evidence required then it will take longer. Bring all the evidence and/or arrange the site visits right away – then you’ll be done in a heartbeat.

Less than you’d think. Your assessor does most of the heavy lifting and your evidence is stored in an e-portfolio. If you choose to work with your assessor in ways they can observe you/you send recorded evidence, record your knowledge and play your part then there’s actually no need for paper at all. If you do choose paperwork rather than do it electronically, then we’ve kept it to a minimum.

No. That’s the deal. Your assessor visits at a time and date when it suits you and/or you send them your evidence. Most visits last a couple of hours, and we work around your job. You won’t lose a day’s pay over an NVQ with us, and if a visit clashes with a deadline, we move it. If you choose to supply evidence to your assessor and it’s good, then you may not need a visit at all.

Just tell us up front, we’re approachable. We’ve supported plenty learners with dyslexia or where English is not their first language or where they simply have not picked up a pen since leaving school. We have plenty methods available we can use to get you through, we believe barriers to learning and progressing are there to be broken down. We can use verbal recorded evidence including question and answers, discussions about your job role amongst many other ways – simply talk to us about what you prefer.

That depends on you, either you gather it or your assessor does. Photos, videos, witness statements from supervisors or site documents can either be gathered by you and sent to assessor or your assessor will come out to site and get it all for themselves. If they come to you, they will observe you doing your job and collect the evidence needed whilst there, or you send it in – your call.

You need to be 19 or over, working in your trade (employed or self-employed), and have at least 2 years of experience. That’s it. We’re interested in whether you can do the job now and we can pull the evidence together.

Yes. Plenty of our learners are sole traders. As long as you’re working in the trade and we can come and watch you or you can send us your evidence, you’re eligible.

Not yet. Our NVQs are for people with at least 2 years’ experience on the tools first. If you’re newer than that, talk to us about apprenticeships or short upskilling courses to bridge the gap. We’ll point you in the right direction either way.

That’s fine. Most of our learners come to us with no certificates and decades of work. We use real evidence from real jobs, that’s how the NVQ system was designed to work.

Not for getting the qualification or for us to travel out to see you. It does matters for funding eligibility though, Greater Manchester and Greater London we have funding for construction, for insulation – we have it all over England, and if you work for a CITB-registered company then they will be entitled to NVQ completion funding across the UK. Best thing to do is give us a call and we’ll work it out.

If you want to work on construction sites in the UK, then most of the time yes. The bigger the site, the stricter on this they usually are, better to come well prepared as getting kicked off site and being out of pocket isn’t great, especially when you can avoid it easily by holding one of our NVQs.

For most cards yes, if you want a skilled, supervisory or management card. Grandfather rights ending accelerated this need, and more and more sites are demanding these cards to allow you to work on there.

Grandfather rights allowed experienced workers to get a CSCS card without doing a current NVQ, more reflecting on past experience in general. However, as the industry (and world) has evolved and methodology. Materials, tools etc have changed then the requirements of roles have to. Completing a current NVQ allows you to upskill and show employers and sites how you can now work in the current climate, this is a great way for you to enhance CPD too.

Level 2 – Blue Skilled Worker card, Level 3 – Gold Advanced Craft or Supervisory card, Level 6/7 – Black Manager card.

Five years. After that, you renew it. As long as your NVQ is on file with CSCS, the renewal is straightforward, usually just the CITB Health, Safety & Environment test and a small fee. Lose the card, lose the work, so put a reminder in your phone.

This means occupational NVQs that make buildings warmer, more energy efficient, and generally cut costs. Most NVQs now contain ‘green’ elements with more sustainable ways of working, but generally speaking insulation, retrofit, solar roofing, heating NVQs are what green skill NVQs are referred to as.

We are seeing a huge push to retrofit old housing stock with newer insulation and energy efficiency measures. This will be where future skills and work lies, don’t miss out.

Not completely, as there are other hoops to jump through – however, without an NVQ as part of this you won’t be PAS compliant.

Loft, cavity wall, underfloor, internal wall, external wall, framed wall, and room-in-roof insulation. Plus solar collector roofing, damp proofing, and waterproof membrane roofing. If your work makes buildings more energy-efficient, there’s likely a funded NVQ route open to you.

Yes, and there’s more of it for green skills than almost anything else right now. Greater Manchester, Greater London, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and CITB all run pots specifically for retrofit and insulation trades. Most of our insulation learners pay nothing.

You upskill your staff and stay compliant on site via CSCS cards, you win bigger contracts that pay better and your business and your people grow – a happy workforce is a productive workforce.

No. We work the delivery of qualifications around you. No one downs tools, no one goes to college, no projects slip. You decide with us at the outset how you want to work with us and we set out the plan to minimise downtime.

In most cases, yes. If you are CITB-registered then you can claim back grants, if your staff live in a postcode where we have funding, then yes.

Once we’ve checked your eligibility, within days. We’ll either come to visit you and get you signed up or we’ll do it remotely via Docusign.

Yes. Apprentices follow the apprenticeship route; your experienced workers do NVQs. We can run both side by side, on the same sites, with the same office contact. Most of our larger client firms do exactly this, keeps the workforce moving up together.

Get in touch with us via website, phone, info@ email, whichever way you prefer and give us your details and we’ll tell you what we can do for you.

In short, wherever you want us to be. We have physical offices in Greater Manchester and Greater London but we have staff covering the whole of the UK, ready to react to your needs. If you’re in the UK, we’ll find you.

Our assessors. All assessors have extensive experience in their occupational areas and extensive experience in assessing and training. These are vetted and approved by Awarding Organisations, as well as DBS checked before they operate with us, they are there to support you on your journey, not just assess your work.

Since 2013. In that time we’ve put thousands of construction workers through their NVQs across the UK, and are proud to say so.

We sort it. If your assessor can’t make a visit, someone else covers. If your funding gets queried, we ring the funder. If you’ve got a problem with your portfolio, you’ll hear back the same day. We don’t hide behind a generic inbox.

Easiest way: ring us on 01942 673047 (Mon–Fri, 9–5). Or fill in the contact form and one of the team will call you back. The first chat is free, no commitment, and we’ll tell you straight what’s possible, funding, timeline, and what it’d cost if anything.

If you haven’t found the answers you were looking for, please contact us.