The ECITB’s ACE card will now incorporate smart technology as part of a nationwide effort to improve the industry’s card checking procedures and safety on major construction sites.
The ACE Card is automatically issued to individuals who hold both an ECITB vocational qualification in an engineering construction discipline and a current CCNSG safety passport. ACE, which stands for Assuring Competence in Engineering, allows individuals to move between civil and engineering construction sites with a single card that validates their credentials. Learner ACE cards are also issued to those registered on an ECITB VQ who hold a current CCNSG Safety Passport. ACE is one of 38 Partner Card Schemes of the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) held by more than 2 million construction workers in the UK and can be downloaded free from the APP Store and Google Play.
ACE is the engineering construction sectors safety card. All newly issued cards will now feature unique Quick Reference (QR) codes that are able to link to a live database to verify cardholders’ authenticity. The CSCS Partner Card Schemes (now rebranded CSCS Alliance) have developed a single App that can be downloaded and used, free of charge, to validate all CSCS card schemes. The App is titled ‘CSCS Smart Check’ and can be downloaded free from the APP Store and Google Play.
Chris Claydon, ECITB Chief Executive, said: “The ACE card is widely used by industry to validate the credentials and identity of workers entering any live site and it is key to maintaining high standards of health and safety and competence assurance across live sites.
“The ECITB welcomes the enhancement of the ACE card to utilise smart technology and I encourage industry to download and use the app.. This is a quick, easy and secure way to ensure everyone on site has the right qualifications and training for the job they do.
“We also hope the introduction of the single app to verify all participating CSCS Partner scheme cardholders will help to resolve some known problems or confusion where some sites may fail to recognise the validity of either the CCNSG or CSCS logos on ACE Cards because that are unaware of the link between the two schemes.”
All ACE Cards issued from 24th June 2022 will contain a QR Code that will open a live link when scanned to verify individual cardholder. This will include a photograph of the cardholder held on original file and confirmation of qualification and safety passport attainment. No live data is stored in the QR code itself and the App itself does not store the scan data thus protecting the data of each individual cardholder. As each card is valid for three years there will be a period where both smart and traditional ACE cards are in circulation, but employers and clients are encouraged to start using the app to verify the authenticity of cardholders with the smart technology. All non QR code ACE cards should also be manually verified for their authenticity.