Get Smart Going Digital

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20 November 2015 | Updated 01 January 1970

Luke Copper Solomons, an apprentice plumber with Price Building Services of Wallington, Surrey, a member of the Building & Engineering Services Association, received the first digital version of a SKILLcard.

The card is used by more than 50,000 mechanical engineering workers to provide proof of their skills and to access project sites in line with health and safety requirements.

The Engineering Services SKILLcard is the first of the specialist schemes affiliated to the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) to switch to chip-enabled smart technology.

The greater functionality means that employers and site managers will be able to check the holder’s qualifications and skills much more quickly with information on the card accessible via smartphone, card reader or tablet. The details held on the card will also be more accurate as it can be rapidly updated with any new skills and qualifications and any of those that have lapsed can be readily removed.

The other aspect is the hope that smart cards are much more difficult to fake, so will help the industry to tackle counterfeiting and misuse by unqualified rogue operatives. Beric Davis, MD of Reference Point, the company that developed the cards, assured the conference that it was “almost impossible” to counterfeit smart cards, while lost or stolen cards can be cancelled immediately.
 

Huge contribution

Peter Rimmer, B&ES head of employment affairs and skills, explained that SKILLcard had made a “huge contribution” to improving professional and health and safety standards since its launch in August 2001. He believed it was now regarded as the benchmark for such schemes across the industry. More than 160,000 people have qualified to receive one of the cards since then, all of whom have had to prove their technical competence and grasp of health and safety issues.

Mr Rimmer added that the SKILLcard system had “made the market for health and safety training”, as well as providing valuable incentives for young engineers to improve their qualifications and technical competences.

“It is a real coup for our sector to be leading the way as the first specialist CSCS scheme to go digital,” he said.

Picture: Luke Copper Solomons (centre) receives the first digital SKILLcard from Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan (left) and B&ES president Jim Marner (right) at the recent Wellcome Collection in London.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis | Published 20 November 2015

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