Everyone who works in Construction as well as a few other trades rely on the competance of their fellow workmates, both male and female.  This has been achieved using trade cards that follow a prescribed training standard with a followup test 2 years later and retesting of the current Health Safety and Environment policies every five years.  

The card scheme has recently been changed, (I don't know why) but the result appears to be longer waits than previous years and it's affecting both safety and job security. 

The normal state of affairs is that at the beginning of the day or when you go onto a new work site, everyone produces their CPCS/NOCN cards that give proof of competance.  The site manager or foreman (of whatever management position is local) then usually checks against a national database to prove their competance and also to prevent such things as slavery and corrupt working practices. 

This last year has been challenging to everyone with the pandemic, but workplaces have adapted and work has continued.  National training has also continued and many millions of pounds has gone over the books of hundreds of companies tied up with the job card scheme, not forgetting the 20 percent of tax that has gone to the Government. 

So it comes as a great annoyance that many workers are now losing work because they can't prove the compentance because their trade cards have not been updated or new cards issued, compounding this is the national database that continues to be out of date - thus companies are unable to confirm the competance of the local workforce. 

To say i'm annoyed is an under statement.