CCNSG Safety Passport Courses
The CCNSG scheme provides the recognised safety passport for contractors and site workers in engineering construction, power generation, oil, gas, chemicals and process industries. Accredited by the ECITB, the passport is a condition of site access for many major clients — a baseline safety qualification that sits alongside, not instead of, site-specific induction.
CCNSG stands for the Client Contractor National Safety Group, the national steering group behind the scheme. You will see the qualification called the CCNSG Safety Passport, the CCNSG card, the ECITB safety passport, or simply the safety passport card — they all mean the same thing.
Which CCNSG course do I need? One question decides it: do you currently hold a valid CCNSG card? No card or an expired one means the full two-day course. Card still in date means the one-day renewal, bookable from three months before expiry. Card in date and you supervise others means Leading a Team Safely, taken alongside your passport rather than instead of it.
There is no grace period. A card that expired last week counts the same as never having held one. Check the expiry date printed on your card before booking, or ask your employer who will usually hold a record.
The three CCNSG courses
All three are delivered in a classroom by accredited providers. There is no e-learning or live online route to a CCNSG safety passport.
2 days — the full course
★ Most requested
For anyone who has never held a passport, or whose card has expired. No prior qualification needed. Covers health and safety law, permits to work, scaffolding, access and egress, fire, COSHH, PPE, manual handling, noise, lifting operations and excavations. Assessed by multiple-choice papers with an 80% pass mark.
1 day — existing card holders
↻ Renewal
Renews an existing card for a further three years. Available only while your current card is still in date, and bookable from three months before expiry. Booking early costs you nothing — the new card runs three years from your existing expiry date, not from the course date.
1 day — supervisors and team leaders
◆ Supervisor level
For those who lead or direct the work of others on site. Built around the concept of “The Good Job” — The Team, The Plan, The Job and The Good Job. Requires a current, valid safety passport as a prerequisite.
CCNSG or CSCS? They are separate schemes for different sectors. CCNSG is the ECITB safety passport used across engineering construction and process sites. CSCS is the construction skills certification scheme used on building sites. Holding one does not give you the other, and workers moving between sectors often carry both.
Ask before you book. Sites usually publish a list of accepted passports, but the reliable answer comes from your employer or the client running the site. Other schemes you may be asked for include the SPA Safety Passport, EUSR and SHEA cards, and IOSH Working Safely.
Who runs the CCNSG scheme
The scheme is monitored and controlled by a national steering group, the Client/Contractor National Safety Group, with the ECITB as the accrediting body. The board draws representatives from major clients, contractors, training providers, trade unions and the Health and Safety Executive, and meets regularly to check that standards are maintained and that course content still reflects current legislation and practice.
That governance is why clients trust the card. It is not one company’s certificate — it is an industry standard the clients themselves helped set. The scheme began in the early 1990s, when a consortium of industrialists from the power generation, steel, oil, gas and chemical industries found that contractor safety training was inconsistent and that a worker’s training did not carry from one site to the next. Two groups, in the North East of England and West Wales, devised a common core curriculum that became the foundation of the national scheme.
What to bring
All CCNSG courses
Photographic identification and your National Insurance number. Both are needed to register you with the ECITB and issue the card, and turning up without them usually means you cannot complete the course.
Renewal and Leading a Team Safely
Your current valid CCNSG card as well. Leading a Team Safely additionally requires two passport-sized photographs — these catch people out, since most courses do not ask for them, so sort them before the day.
Language requirement
A good understanding of spoken and written English is required, as the training and assessment are delivered in English.
Your card after the course. You are issued a temporary passport at the end of the training, valid for six weeks, so you are not waiting on the post before you can get on site. The full ECITB card follows separately. Note the expiry date when it arrives and diary your CCNSG renewal course a few months ahead of it rather than in the final weeks.
Training a crew? Engineering construction work is rarely done alone, and CCNSG courses can usually be delivered at your depot or a venue near you rather than sending people out one at a time. Group delivery is cheaper per head and keeps card expiry dates aligned across the team, which makes the next renewal round far easier to plan. See on-site training for groups.
Find a CCNSG course near me
CCNSG courses run at venues across the UK, concentrated around the major engineering construction and process industry regions — Teesside, Merseyside, the Humber, Grangemouth and the North West in particular. To find a CCNSG course near you, open the course you need from the three above; each page lists live dates and venues and lets you filter by county, town or postcode.
Availability varies considerably by region, so widening the radius is worth trying if nothing shows locally. Nothing suitable at all? Courses are added regularly, so it is worth checking back — or contact us and we will let you know when something becomes available in your area.