Construction Skills Certification Scheme or your CSCS card – required to work on many UK construction sites.

The first CSCS cards were issued to trades people back in 1995, and the scheme has gradually grown to encompass most, if not all, of the occupations found on typical UK construction sites. This means that more communications cabling installers are being asked for their CSCS cards to be shown before being allowed on-site to do the fibre optic of copper datacoms cabling, and/or security monitoring cabling, around buildings.

CSCS or ECS Card?

The CSCS card is the “umbrella” card system for the whole construction industry. The ECS card is an CSCS partner card issued under the Electrotechnical Certification Scheme, specifically for electrical installers – and copper and fibre cable installation falls under the ECS. 

A variety of cards are available for different job roles, see the ECS website for more details. 

Why Apply for an ECS Card?

Quite simply you will want to apply for a CSCS card because as a communications cabling professional you will find this to be a requirements before you can do your job on many UK construction sites. Even outside of the UK, the card can provide evidence of skills recognised under reciprocal arrangements with some equivalent foreign schemes.

What is the point of ECS cards?

The benefits of the Construction Skills Certification Scheme depend on who you are. For the client the scheme provides evidence that workers are skilled, competent and qualified to do the jobs they are employed to do on-site. For the individual worker, the evidence of skills is valuable in improving employment prosopects and reducing the scope for unskilled workers undercutting rates and providing correspondingly poor quality.
For all concerned the CSCS card scheme ensures at least a minimum awareness of health and safety, with the benefit that all employed on construction sites should be at least a little safer as a consequence.
Different levels of CSCS cards exist so that trainees, experienced workers, skilled workers and management trades can be distinguished.

What do I need to get a ECS card?

The requirements in order to get a CSCS or ECS card as a skilled worker are two-fold. Firstly you will need to supply evidence of competence for the skill that will be specified on the card, and secondly you will need to show a suitable health and safety qualification.
For communications cabling trades the normal evidence of competence is a UK qualification, with the industry standard City and Guilds 3668 and 3667 awards being recognised by the appropriate CSCS certification body. In some exceptional circumstances, it may be that skills in communications cabling can be recognised without the City and Guilds qualifications.

Can Lucid help with ECS card applications?

The Fibre-optic Industry Association (FIA) is currently looking to help members with an easier route to skilled CSCS cards, and hopes to be able to detail how to go about applying for the cards shortly. Our Technical Director, John Colton, at Lucid is also a director fo the FIA and is involved in the work to help ensure appropriate CSCS cards and evidence of competence are available to skilled workers in the UK communications cabling industry.
Watch this space – more information will be posted when this initiative goes live.

Do CSCS cards require NVQs?

No. The initial paperwork for may trades and skills focussed on NVQs as the primary qualifications to prove competence, but these proved unpopular and mostly inappropriate for the communications cabling industry. Currently, the City and Guilds 3667/3668 scheme and the Open Awards Level 3 awards in fibre and copper datacoms installation are accepted for ECS cards as the UK industry standard qualifications.

Will my **** or ***** certificate be accepted for CSCS card?

This could depend on what letters fill in the asterix spaces above, but the most likely answer is a simple no. The City & Guilds 3667/3668 awards and the OA Level 3 Awards in fibre/copper datacoms installation have been accepted as UK qualifications on the RQF and widely recognised as being the industry standard qualifications for the communications cabling industry. Beware of other ‘qualifications’ that are often little more than company certificates and will not be recognised in the UK as evidence of skills for ECS cards.