In the May 2026 edition of the CPA Bulletin, I wrote a special feature article on the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Certificate of Training Achievement Scheme (CTA), the original national training and certification scheme for plant operators and which subsequently morphed into today’s Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS).
The article provided the key features of the evolution of CTA and CPCS from the1980’s, with CPA instrumental in initiating and launching CTA in 1986, along with the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (FCEC) and the latterly with the Building Employers Confederation (BEC), with CPA holding the majority Management Committee seats since that time.
In the late 1990s and initiated by Trevor Gamble – CPA Council Member and CTA Management Committee Member – that CTA should become a competence-based scheme and for which culminated in the introduction of red cards, blue cards, vocational qualifications (NVQs/SVQs) and log books, adopting the title of Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) to reflect the new focus of the scheme and launched in 2003.
Despite CPCS being sold by CITB to the commercial sector in 2019, it remains the most popular and respected national plant card scheme, expanding over the years the range of plant categories and occupations, surviving the impacts of some hard-fought developments and advances to ensure that the scheme remains at the forefront of competence assurance.
To mark this significant event, CPA and the NOCN Group – the current owners of CPCS – held a special commemorative lunch in mid-July 2026. Invitees included CPA Council Members, relevant CPA staff, NOCN members and other special invitees but most importantly, to invite and credit those who both led, managed and administered both CTA and CPCS over the years, with many attending on the day.
The lunch was opened by Steve Mulholland, CPA CEO, who reminded the guests that with high accident rates at the time, it was CPA that made strides into implementing a national training scheme to improve safety and launching CTA exactly 40 years ago. He stated that CTA was one of the first national voluntary training and certification schemes – and had since provided plant operators formal recognition of their skills, expertise and latterly competence. He noted that the schemes (both CTA and CPCS) from the outset had been both brave and foresighted in continually raising safety and operational standards, but mixed with sometimes strong criticism from the outset. He further reminded guests that CTA rapidly became the benchmark scheme – the only plant card scheme accepted wholly by industry.
Steve further outlined that he joined the CPCS Committee in 2008 and saw first-hand, the passion, dedication, integrity and hard work put in by the committee members who along with CITB technical staff, continued to improve the scheme despite ongoing criticisms, competitors and predictions of demise. With being in existence for 40 years, CPA and NOCN felt it right that they collectively celebrate this important milestone.
Steve then handed over to Jemma Carmody, CECA Director and PSRO Chair, who stated that CECA were pleased to have been co-founders alongside CPA since inception, supporting the civil engineering sector’s focus on training and safety. She stated that their sector recognised the importance of a national and consistent approach to the training and certification for plant operators and had co-chaired CTA on its inception and further held the Chair role during the transition of CTA through to CPCS in 2003 with John Gladstone, a highly respected civil engineer, at the helm.
Jemma concluded by remarking that the civil engineering sector remained fully supportive of the schemes over the last 40 years, and noted that the standards originally set by CTA and CPCS remain the benchmark of today for all CSCS plant card schemes, decreed by the PSRO though the ICSG competency framework requirements.
At the lunch, a commemorative brochure had been published – outlining the chronology of the scheme and those who were involved in its formation and development. Later during meal, I as someone with some 36 years involvement with CTA, CPCS and CPA, gave a presentation on milestones of the scheme, naming the key players who devised and managed the schemes, passionate about improving safety and training standards and who faced many obstacles and criticisms to get CPCS where it is today.
In chronological order, special mentions were given firstly for John Varcoe of CPA – credited with setting the initial CTA criteria – and who spent some 18 years on the CTA committee, followed by Jim Batchelor, formerly of CITB, on his work for developing CTA from the early days and setting up the CTA department in 1992, as well as implementing the training provider accreditation process.
Recognition was then given to Mike Harvey, who became the first CTA scheme manager, holding the post through CPCS until his retirement in 2007, followed by Mel Edwards, the longest serving CTA and CPCS employee, involved originally in processing CTA certificates in the late 80’s, before moving into the new CTA department and remained there in various roles until her move to CPA Member Falcon Cranes in 2018.
Next for being recognised for their contribution to the schemes was Trevor Gamble – credited as the father of CPCS, who initiated and chaired a working party to turn CTA into a competence-based scheme. Trevor further served as a CITB Board Member and was later awarded an MBE for his services to health and safety, based on him moving CTA to a competence-based scheme. I myself, as a CTA monitor at the time, was seconded onto the working party, with my task of putting the concepts of the working party into practice.
Other notable guests included John Sibbald of Sibbalds Training – whose family’s training centre in Scotland became the first accredited centre under CTA back in 1992 and remains the longest accredited plant training centre in the UK – and Bob Collins, former CPA President and a long-serving CPCS committee member, who represented the plant sector on the CITB Board.
Further mentions were made of former CITB staff including Nick Gooderson, who oversaw the formalised training qualifications and NVQ/SVQ introductions, Mark Bodger, who oversaw several transitions of CPCS and a number of former CITB administration staff who carried out the card processing activities.
I then handed over to Carl Hassell, Chief Operations Officer of NOCN, who provided guests with an outline of potential CPCS developments over the forthcoming years and of some of the issues and difficulties of keeping CPCS at the forefront of safety and training standards for industry and the pressures of competition where standards of other schemes were less rigorously applied.
In summary and with many of those formerly involved in CTA and the early days of CPCS now well into retirement, it is unlikely that the same gathering could be made again. The celebration lunch was therefore a fitting tribute to those who made the scheme the success it is today, whose ultimate aim was raising safety standards for plant and given recognition that they had achieved what they set out to do.
