Long gone are the days when you could stick to “your own job”, nowadays we need to be flexible and multi skilled. This particularly holds true for the staff charged with maintaining park and amenity areas. One moment they could be sorting out washrooms and waste disposal and the next job is just as likely to be pest control or decorative horticultural displays.


The competent servicing of our amenity areas is an essential ingredient to them being enjoyed safely, and City & Guilds has developed a qualification to recognise those skills, the Level 2 NVQ in Local Environmental Services (7699). An NVQ is a nationally recognised qualification gained in the workplace; it is based on National Occupational Standards which are written by employers and experts in that industry. Achieving an NVQ proves that the candidate can work to the standards expected by employers in that particular industry. This new qualification is ideal for grounds men, estate management staff, and cleaners. The choice of units is sufficiently broad that it allows for staff working in a range of jobs to utilise the NVQ.

There are six units to take to complete the qualification, but candidates must take three mandatory units which must include at least one from the following pool of cleaning units:

• Cleaning internal of external surfaces
  
• Routine or non routine waste
  
• Washrooms and supplies
• High risk areas or confined spaces
  
• Street cleansing manually or by machine
  
• Working at heights or minor maintenance
  

One amenity horticulture unit from the following:

• Operate a tractor with attachments
  
• Maintain boundaries and paths or structures and surfaces
  
• Pesticides or pest control
  
• Turf or planting
  
• Decorative horticulture displays or amenity areas
  
• Drainage or hard landscaping

If you would like more information on the qualification please contact information@nptc.org.uk or use the reader enquiry service below