It is also the second largest issuer of CSCS cards covering construction plant through CPCS (The Construction Plant Competence Scheme) and, in partnership with CISRS (The Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme), the scaffolding sub-sector.

During this time, it has contributed to the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) People and Skills Group, inputted into the Construction Skills Mission Board (CSMB), supported the Big Data and Data Insights work, and supported and led industry engagement groups. In addition, NOCN Group has also supported the work of the Industry Training Boards (ITBs).

NOCN Group’s CPCS, which will shortly celebrate its 40th year as a fully comprehensive competency scheme, has long operated a five-year renewal process. This process is underpinned by recording manual logbooks that capture operator knowledge, skills experience and mandatory CPD. When NOCN Group took ownership of CPCS in 2019, a programme of digitalisation was initiated to transform logbook records, forming an early version of a skills passport. At the same time, NOCN Group started a skills passport for health and safety in the oil and gas industry in the Middle-East.

As a result of all this development work, we registered our skills passport trademark in the UK in 2024.

We fully support the work of the CLC and CSMB in addressing the construction industry’s skills challenges. We believe that robust data records and a competency-based digital skills passport are essential to support this work and to comply with regulatory requirements. For several months, we have worked to reach an agreement with CSCS on the deployment of a competency-based skills passport. However, CSCS has rejected our offer of joint working and continues to infringe on NOCN Group’s legal rights.

Regrettably, we have been given no choice but to serve notice as a first step in a legal process against CSCS.

For the benefit of the whole of the construction industry, we hope an amicable settlement can be reached.

Find out more about the Skills Passport here.

For media enquiries, please contact Darren Booth, Head of Marketing, darren.booth@nocn.org.uk, 07823 559 429