The board of the Construction Skills Certification Scheme has decided to shelve plans to introduce a single ‘smart’ card that would replace its current 13 colour-coded cards, citing industry confusion over the plan.
The proposal, along with an intended implementation date as soon as 2016, had been included in the organisation’s 2014 Annual Review as a means of making the scheme simpler to understand and administer.
In January, a spokeswoman for CSCS gave Construction Manager further details, and explained that a formal consultation would be launched shortly.
It is understood that the CIOB was broadly in favour of the “single card” idea, as it would encourage employers to focus on an individual’s qualifications rather than the colour of the card, for instance in job adverts. It would also help to remove individuals’ frustration at having the “wrong” card for their role or experience.
But the quarterly board meeting, held in March, resolved to put the plan on hold and instead concentrate on other changes to the CSCS system: namely, the plan to align other industry card schemes with CSCS to create a single “logo” recognised across the industry.
This initiative, championed by the Construction Leadership Council and agreed at its meeting on 28 November 2014, is one of the objectives of the Construction 2025 strategy.
"It’s a small team, so the board wanted to concentrate on doing things well, rather than doing everything. Therefore it was best to concentrate on what the industry wanted."
CSCS spokeswoman
Ten schemes already carry the CSCS logo voluntarily, but other schemes must now apply if they want to continue to operate. Schemes must ensure that their cardholders meet the minimum standard for skilled occupations of S/NVQ Level 2, and also must commit to using smart technology within the next five years.
The CSCS spokeswoman explained: “It’s a small team, so the board wanted to concentrate on doing things well, rather than doing everything. Therefore it was best to concentrate on what the industry wanted.
“Plus, people were getting confused, there were conversations about the ‘single card’ and also the ‘single logo’. We could have clarified that, but we wanted to concentrate on what the industry was asking for.”
She said that the planned consultation on the “single card” was on hold indefinitely until the “single logo” system was implemented, and that in turn depended on how quickly the other card-issuing bodies responded to the challenge.
But at some point after the single logo is embedded, the CSCS board would take a decision on whether to pursue its plans on the single card and launch an industry-wide consultation.
The organisations represented on the board of the CSCS are: the Civil Engineering Contractors Association; Construction Clients Group; Construction Industry Council; Federation of Master Builders; GMB Union; National Specialist Contractors Council; UK Contractors Group; Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT); and Unite the Union.
In a statement on its website, the organisation said:
“The 2014 CSCS Annual Review referred to CSCS’ plan to simplify the scheme by moving to one type of card by the end of 2016.
However, in light of the recent CLC announcement relating to the adoption of CSCS as the single logo for construction card schemes, the CSCS Board has decided to defer consultation on simplifying the scheme for the time being.
This will allow sufficient focus to be given to the required processes to ensure all schemes have the necessary arrangements in place in order to display the CSCS logo.
“CSCS remains committed to simplifying the scheme over the longer term and will continue to liaise with industry on this matter before making any further announcements. Any future proposals on this issue will be subject to full industry consultation.”
The CSCS card has got to be the biggest blag in construction, how does a multiple question test prove you are safe?
No wonder they don’t want to go to a single card and simplify things as they would lose revenue from the 13 useless cards they promote already. When will industry wake up to the ridiculous schemes that prove nothing?
We are working to create just this system for the construction industry and to tie it in to biometric access control to create further efficiency and cost savings. You can read more in my blog – http://blog.hrsid.com/how-construction-companies-can-manage-skills-and-site-access-with-just-1-card
This is madness – how can simplifying the number of cards be at odds with other efforts to merge the schemes out there. For the employer at the moment it is just impossible.
The certificate system has nothing to do with training, experience, competency or a person’s ability to supervisor or manger activities on a construction site. CSCS only indicates what academic qualifications (or a multiple choice touch screen test) a person has completed and deems them all broadly the same (but categorises them differently).
Assessing if a person should or should not be allowed onsite / to carry out an activity is the employer’s responsibility.
I struggle to see any real value in CSCS certification. Merging the different accreditation schemes is a red herring and if there was only one card / certificate type, it would make no difference. All responsibilities for assessing training, experience, competency etc. still remain with the employer.