The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) will stop accepting postal applications for its cards from the end of June.

At the start of May it removed from its website the forms that could previously be downloaded to be filled in with a pen and posted off, although it continues to accept those forms it receives in the post until the end of June. 

With the end of postal applications, CSCS will also stop accepting cheques and postal orders as a method of payment. From July onwards all payments will have to be made by credit or debit card.

In future, all card application forms will have to be filled in online, although anyone who has historically relied on the postal application service and cannot manage to fill in the form online will be able to submit their application by telephone. CSCS promises it will be ‘improving’ its  current telephone processes.

CSCS says it is ending the paper-based postal system of application because it is inefficient and time consuming for both its staff and the people applying.

Gordon Jenkins, Director of Operations at CSCS, says: “Postal applications do not deliver good customer service. They are a complex, time-consuming and  inefficient way for our customers to make an application and this is why we have decided to withdraw the service.”

Employers applying for two or more cards should use the online employer application form.

Gordon Jenkins: “All postal applications received after 30 June will be returned to the applicant with a request to make a telephone application. 

“Removing the postal applications takes away much of the complexity surrounding the paper-based system and it will speed up the application process for individual applicants.”

You can find information about applying for a CSCS card online or by telephone at www.cscs.uk.com.

CSCS has also issued new guidance for people applying for a CSCS card who hold Irish (or other) qualifications. 

CSCS accepts Irish qualifications from FETAC or QQI on the same basis as British qualifications. 

You can find out more about applying for a CSCS card using overseas qualifications at bit.ly/CSCSoverseas.

Construction workers from abroad who want a CSCS card to work in the UK have the technical content of their overseas qualification mapped against the relevant UK National Occupational Standard for that occupation. 

Anyone with a construction related qualification awarded outside the UK that is not currently recognised by CSCS should contact UK NARIC. 

UK NARIC will review the qualification and determine whether or not it is comparable to an NVQ, SVQ or other approved qualification appropriate to the holder’s occupation. If it is, it will issue a Statement of Comparability that should be presented to CSCS for a card.