ACE Overview Wales
Step by step guide for Employers on the ACE Initiative:
How to get started, register candidates and claim grants
‘Are your employees competent?’ YES… ‘Can you prove it?’
Clients and the Health & Safety Executive are increasingly asking these questions of all companies.
ACE (Assuring Competence in Engineering Construction) is the solution. ACE is an initiative that will assess the competence of the entire skilled ECI on-site onshore workforce against National Standards.
Your dedicated ECITB Account Manager or ECITB ACE representative – contact details on the ‘Need Help?’ page included in the Employers Guide – will take your company through the process.
THE ACE PROCESS
ACE currently covers the following trades: Welding (Pipework & Plate), Plating, Erecting, Mechanical Fitting, Mechanical Maintenance, Pipefitting, Instrument Pipefitting, Electrician and Electrical Maintenance. Other trades are being incorporated in future phases.
Employees are assessed against ECITB N/SVQ (National or Scottish Vocational Qualification) Level 3 Standards. For more information on N/SVQs see the document ‘What is a N/SVQ?’ contained in the Employers Guide.
If your employees have already achieved a N/SVQ in the above trades, they can apply for the ACE card NOW. An application form is included in the Employers Guide and additional forms can be downloaded from www.ace.uk.net or requested from ECITB on 01923 260 000. Application for the ACE card.
Assessment is carried out by an Approved Centre – this is typically a company, client site or training provider/college. Your company may already be an Approved Centre; if not, there is the option to become one in your own right, or to employ the services of a third party. In this case, your company has a contract for assessment services direct with the Approved Centre. A complete list of all centres approved to deliver ACE qualifications is included in the Employers Guide and is also downloadable from the ACE website – www.ace.uk.net.
Your ECITB Account Manager will help you decide which route is most appropriate for your company.
1. Registering your employees for assessment
A grant of £200 is available per employee registered on the scheme.*
The Approved Centre completes the registration form with you and forwards it to the ECITB; this registers your employees on the initiative. Please note that assessment must begin within 3 months of registration or the grant must be repaid.
For more detailed information on registering and the grant claiming process, see the Registration Grant claiming process form CA1P and sample claim form CA1 in the Employers Pack or download them from www.ace.uk.net.
2. Assessment
Assessment is carried out on site whilst an individual is doing their everyday job; the process is assessor-led and non-intrusive.
The Assessor will have an initial meeting with your employee to go through the assessment procedure. Each individual has a portfolio that the Assessor compiles and looks after, minimising candidate input. This contains all the evidence of competence in the specific trade.
Most assessment is observation in the workplace; the assessor takes the strain. Assessment takes 25-35 hours and has been successfully carried out on shutdowns and outages. Down time from productive work is minimal and on average only 6 hours.
There is an option to use your own company Assessors working with a third party Approved Centre. Assessor training is available free of charge to ECITB in-scope companies.
The recent development of the Expert Witness Adviser (EWA) scheme helps reduce Assessor time on site and hence costs for your company. An EWA is a company employee who observes candidates doing certain tasks towards the N/SVQ when the Assessor is not present. The EWA must be competent in the trade they are observing and be registered through the Approved Centre.
Your Approved Centre or ECITB Account Manager can advise on the use of in-company Assessors and registering employees as Expert Witness Advisors.
3. Completing Assessment
A grant of up to £500 is available per employee on completion of the N/SVQ.*
When the Assessor is satisfied that they have sufficient evidence of competence, the candidate’s portfolio is submitted to an Internal Verifier (IV).
Once the IV is satisfied that correct procedures have been followed, the Approved Centre sends the certificate application form to the ECITB and the N/SVQ certificate is issued. The employee’s completed ACE card application form and photograph can be sent to the ECITB at the same time and the ACE card is then issued directly to the employee. Companies are advised of employees who have achieved the ACE card on a monthly basis.
The ACE card is valid for 5 years.
In the event that an employee requires additional training to meet the assessment criteria for any units, this can be addressed through TecSkills. Your ECITB Account Manager will help you with this.
For more detailed information on completion and the grant claiming process, see the Completion Grant claiming process form CA2P and sample claim form CA2 in the Employers Pack or download them from www.ace.uk.net.