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ECITB and VQs

ECITB: the Standard Setting Body for the engineering construction industry

Working with representatives from the industry, the ECITB develops and trials the National Standards on which the various Vocational Qualifications relevant to the industry are based.
The ECITB maintains and updates the National Standards in light of changes due to working practices, technology, legislation, etc. The ECITB SSB sets the assessment strategy for the VQ's.

ECITB: the Awarding Body

  • Using the agreed National Standards, the ECITB creates the qualification, which is then submitted to the QCA and/or SQA for accreditation.
  • The ECITB develops assessment material for use by candidates and assessors.
  • Through External Verifiers, the ECITB ensures that the quality of assessment is maintained.
  • The ECITB approves certain centres (such as companies or training centres) at which individuals must be assessed for their VQs.
  • The ECITB records the details of individual candidates who apply and register for a VQ through an ECITB-approved centre.
  • When the candidate is deemed to be competent by the Internal Assessor (and this is confirmed by the Internal Verifier), the ECITB certificates the relevant unit of the VQ.
  • When all the required units have been completed, the ECITB certificates the whole qualification.
  • The Awarding Body part of the ECITB reports back to the Standard Setting Body part of the organisation about any problems with the National Standards and helps to determine the need for future changes. 
     

ECITB: the training provider and adviser

  • The ECITB provides training for internal assessors and verifiers for VQs.
  • The ECITB also provides various types of training for supervisors, craftspersons, managers and technicians, together with health and safety training. To find out more, please visit the courses section.
  • Another key role of the ECITB is to provide training advice to all in-scope companies.

ECITB: the grant provider

  • Grants may be available for ECITB-approved training leading to NVQs. To find out more, please visit the grants section. 

ECITB’s partners

The ECITB is working with several organisations to continuously review existing qualifications and develop new ones. By working with other Standard Setting and Awarding Bodies, the ECITB is also able to offer ‘one-stop’ access to VQs from other organisations (with no charge to in-scope companies).

Collaborating with ECITB in this work are:

  • SQA
  • City & Guilds London Institute
  • Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation
  • Construction Industry Training Board
  • Management Charter Initiative OSCEng.

In addition, the ECITB has recently worked closely with the Engineering Competence Standards Project (ECS).All ECITB engineering qualifications at levels 1, 2 and 3 will use these units wherever possible.