It is widely recognised that the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation (BCITO) continuously evaluates and develops its qualifications to better meet industry’s needs.
This year the BCITO’s qualifications team is reviewing the suite of existing, and developing a number of new, cement and concrete qualifications that recognise the skills and knowledge of tradespeople working in the following sectors:
• Concrete production (ready mixed concrete)
• Concrete construction
• Placing and finishing
• Pre-cast concrete manufacture
• Concrete block manufacture (masonry)
• Concrete pipe manufacture
• Concrete tank manufacture
• Concrete sawing and drilling.
The first step in the process was to develop and release the National Certificate in Concrete Core Skills (NCCCS) — a Level 2 qualification that acts as a stepping stone into any of the concrete sector trade-level qualifications currently under review and development.
The NCCCS qualification provides a basic grounding for all cement and concrete workers, particularly those new to the industry.
As with most industry qualifications in New Zealand, the NCCCS consists of a collection of unit standards. These are the individual building blocks that break down a full qualification into a series of skills in which trainees must be assessed as being competent.
The Concrete Core Skills qualification requires a mixture of theory and practical units, as well as several elective units.
In addition to the NCCCS being a stand-alone qualification, five of the theory units are available as a separate package for current employees of the industry.
This enables them to complete the underpinning theory for all of the trade-level cement and concrete qualifications prior to entering into the higher-level, sector-specific concrete qualifications.
These essential theory units encompass skills such as knowledge of concrete materials and the concrete production process, the concrete industry, power tools used in concrete work, quality assurance requirements, and routine methods of testing concrete.
One of the added benefits of this new National Certificate (and the other new and reviewed cement and concrete qualifications being released in the next 12 months) is the inclusion of embedded literacy.
Embedding literacy skills into the qualification involves the trainee completing “self check” pages to ensure they understand the material in the unit before completing the worksheets.
Successfully completing the “self check” questions helps trainees retain what they have learnt, a very important part of effective industry training.
See contact details below for more information on Concrete Core Skills or other BCITO qualifications.
