The glazing industry’s Competent Persons Schemes (including the likes of FENSA and Certass) are currently rolling out an updated Mandatory Technical Competence (MTC) framework as the domestic sector shifts from Minimum to Mandatory competence.

We 100% welcome the shift, which requires individual fitters to demonstrate that they are meeting the Building Regs and can satisfy all the relevant quality, health and safety standards.

It’s certainly good for the reputation of the whole industry that all fitters now have to prove their competence via qualification and assessment, rather than just claiming it via a voluntary box ticking exercise or so called ‘grandfather rights’ based on their years of experience. We’re also pleased to see that they will also be regularly audited to check that their knowledge is up to date.

One important thing to note though is that those Competence Persons Schemes apply to the retail rather than the commercial sector. For a company like The Window Company (Contracts), our requirement differs. Our fitters must all have a CSCS card issued by an appropriate competency assessment body which declares their role on site, and all our lead fitters must have at least an NVQ Level 2 in fenestration (many of them have qualifications which far exceed that).

We work with GQA, a specialist glazing and construction industry qualification provider, to ensure that everyone in our team has a CSCS card which is appropriate for their skills, experience and qualifications. When any of our fitters, labourers or apprentices arrive on site, clients can be assured that they will be carrying the right colour card for their role.

For our lead fitters, that means a blue GQA CSCS card, for our labourers it is green and for our apprentices it is red. Supervisors have a gold CSCS card and contract managers have a black one. These are instantly recognisable and ensure that everyone can access site quickly and easily.