CRO Closures Progress

Today SKILLcard announced that the CRO card for 29 occupations are closing starting on 31st January 2021. This is the 6th wave of CRO closures as part of its plan to deliver the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) 2025 vision. All card schemes carrying the CSCS logo including SKILLcard, must only certify those occupations with nationally recognised construction related qualifications, i.e. NVQs/SVQs or approved equivalents.

The project, expected to take a number of years to complete, will manage the phase-out of CRO cards and support those affected by identifying paths to an agreed industry qualification for that occupation in order to obtain a skilled worker SKILLcard.

28 CRO Card occupations Effected

• Air Handling Equipment Service and Installation Specialist
• Air Handling Unit/HVAC Plant Movement Specialist
• Building Air Integrity Sealing/Testing Specialist
• Building Water Treatment Service Provider
• Cold-room Installer
• Convection Heating & Radiant Panel Installer
• Domestic Air Leakage Tester/Consultant
• Dust Extraction Systems Installer
• Fridge/Freezer Fitter
• Fume Cupboard Installer
• Heat Recovery Systems Specialist
• Hot Tapping/Line Stopping Specialist
• Humidification Engineer
• HVAC Equipment Manufacturers Support Staff
• Industrial Boiler Erector
• Kitchen Fire Suppression System Installation Specialist
• Medical Gas Services Installer Engineer
• Pipe Freezing Specialist
• Plastics Fabrication Specialist
• Service Engineer - Vibration Analysis/Fan Balancing
• Smoke and Natural Ventilation Installer
• Specialist Refrigeration Unit Installation Personnel
• Steam and Industrial Fluid Equipment Service Engineer
• Swimming Pool Equipment Installation and Service Personnel
• Underfloor Heating Installer (Dry System)
• Underfloor Heating Installer (Wet System)
• Ventilation System Installer- Fire/Smoke
• Ventilation Systems Installer- Louvre and Smoke
• Ventilation System Installer - Odour Control

SKILLcard will no longer be accepting new applications for these cards from the 31st January 2021. Renewal applications will continue to be accepted until 30th June 2021 following which they will no longer be accepted. All existing CRO cards are still valid until the expiration date on the card.

Alternative Card Routes

Applicants will have three options available for them as alternatives to the CRO card. Applications will be open for red trainee cards, blue experienced worker cards, blue skilled worker cards or advanced craft gold cards.

You can read more about the CRO closure and see the details of the alternative routes on the dedicated CRO Closure page on the SKILLcard website.