A plant operator attempted their CPCS exam two years ago, and since then has been working in site excavating. The red card has actually been doing its job. When it expires is when it becomes a problem for you.
A card for a trained operator is considered to last for two years. After that, it’s simply a piece of plastic. Your operator will be removed from the site if they do not have a blue competence card. Because they cannot work without a card, and to get a card means they have to repeat the process from the beginning, including all the training costs.
Expiry dates are not tracked correctly by most companies. Someone gets qualified and begins work. Two years elapses and boom, the card is expired, and people are running around like headless chickens.
Progressing from red card to blue
Moving from a red card to a blue card has two main requirements. One of them is that they must have a CPCS technical test and the other is that they must have an NVQ.
The technical test involves someone sitting an exam that is purely theoretical it should cover the same plant category that the training was done with, and it will cover more in depth content. Most operators who have been in the field for two years and have been working in that category find it manageable. Once you are ready to sit the exam, schedule it, complete it and you will be done.
Unlike the technical test, the NVQ is much more time-consuming. The NVQ is assessed in practice, which means someone has to come to the site where the operator works in order to assess their knowledge, and to sign off certain tasks. This means that the assessor has to come to the site multiple times and this process can take a few months, and it may take longer if the operator performs only one type of task.
The time frame and conditions for the red card and NVQ can not be rushed. Everyone is looking for things like competence and variety at the NVQ.
As for the *two year time frame, it is the law and is not subject to change. Any time the red card expires before the NVQ is complete, there are serious implications for your operater. They can not: . Work on the plant complete the NVQ (this means they have to start at the begining again and do the full duration of the retraining again. Because of the legal time frame of retaking the NVQ, they will be retraining again within the same time frame.). You are now at the begining of your NVQ, once again. Grab the brown paper bag, (if the operator is a man, they will tightly role it up). It is time again for a new plant operator. The new operator will have a card that has expired (the card is the NVQ). As for the card (the card is the NVQ), it will contain more than one operator’s name and thus have to have a new card holder for the NVQ.
ACT members It is true that we keep track of the expiry of the red card and are. We will be paying the NVQ with one of the providers and doing it much less than if they had forgotten. We have a set rate. We are to be there when the testing and assessing are to be there. We will be there when the assessing and testing are to be there. Checking the expiry of the red cards of your operators is a good way to avoid the problems that are associated with the expiry of NVQ. Within the last 12 months of renewing the expiration date of the red cards of your operators.