BESA moves to plug CITB F-gas gap
The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) is to offer F-gas certification following the CITB announcement that it is to drop its F-gas scheme.
CITB and City & Guilds are currently the only organisations offering F-gas certification schemes. Faced with changes to its government funding, the CITB announced that it is to withdraw all its products for ACS and Utilities Engineering Centres from the end of January 2017. This includes a wide range of training and certification schemes, including its F-gas categories J11 to J14.
DEFRA has sought to reassure employers whose staff are legally required to carry F-gas certification that new routes to professional certification will be made available by the passing of revised F-gas handling legislation next year.
CITB has said that all certificates and cards, which are subject to reassessment every five years, will continue to be valid until the expiration date. In the meantime, many existing training providers are offering advice for those whose five-year CITB cards are due to expire.
The CITB scheme allows persons to undertake reassessment up to six months early without date penalty, so operatives whose cards are due to expire within the next six months could undertake reassessment early. Some training providers, like Hampshire-based Business Edge, which is a certified centre for both the CITB and C&G training schemes, offer the opportunity to book onto a City & Guilds 2079 Course instead.
Alternatively, BESA, which operates the Refcom company certification scheme, says it will have its new operatives scheme in place from next year.