Here's the scenario:
Painter 1: Young person, just finished their NVQ level 2 and has passed the CITB Health and Safety Test. Total lack of experience but has a Blue CSCS card.
Painter 2: Experienced painter with over 10yrs working as a commercial painter (but NO NVQ) and has also passed their CITB Health and Safety test. Fantastic site painter but only has a Green CSCS card.
Problem?
Painter 2 is restricted to working on sites that accept a Green CSCS card.
Painter 1 can work on any site.
The question is, who is more at risk on site?
To my mind, without question, it is the inexperienced painter 1.
And here lies the problem with the whole CSCS card system.
I know there will be some H&S persons out there saying, why doesn't Painter 2 go down the OSAT route and get his blue card.
My answer to this is why should he? He/She is already competent (trained, experienced and has the knowledge).
All it takes is either the CSCS system to change (i.e. Bring back the 'grandfather rights', or for Construction H&S professionals to use a little common sense and in doing so bring back a little bit of credibility to the health and safety profession.
Here's another thought.
Due to the recession, the fact that many young persons do not want to do a 'manual' job and older skilled persons retiring, the Construction Industry is now desperately short of skilled labour.
So why are we discriminating against a group of skilled workers simply because they do not hold the right colour CSCS card.
Construction companies who stop 'Green' card holders from working on sites need to ask themselves a question:
Providing a person has passed the CITB Health and Safety Test, which demonstrates competency the best? A 'Blue' CSCS card showing that the worker has an NVQ or 5-10yrs experience, actually working on sites?
The answer, of course, is 'both' but because as a society we seem to rely on paper certificates and not the actual 'practical', 'hands on' skills of the worker, we are missing out on a large number of skilled workers.
So come on Construction Health and Safety Advisors, just for once, use your common sense when deciding who can and cannot works on your sites.
And to the CITB, why don't you look at other ways of skilled workers achieving a 'Blue' CSCS card, rather than restricting the card only to persons who hold an NVQ level 2.