CONSTRUCTIONSkills' F-Gas assessment is now up and running. An alternative to the scheme operated by City & Guilds, these new assessments fully comply with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 842/2006 and (EC) No 303/2008 which specifies the qualification of personnel carrying out activities on equipment containing F-Gases.
As with the C&G2079, there are four categories of certification:

J11 (Category I) certificate holders may carry out all refrigerant handling activities for any size of acr systems containing F-gases. This includes leakage checking, refrigerant recovery, installation, maintenance and servicing.

J12 (Category II) certificate holders may carry out refrigerant recovery installation, maintenance and servicing, in relation to acr systems containing less than 3kg of F- gases (for systems that are hermetically sealed). Category II certificate holders may also carry out leak checks on any plant provided that it does not entail breaking into the refrigeration circuit containing F-gases.

J13 (Category III) certificate holders may carry out refrigerant recovery in acr systems containing less than 3kg of F-gases (or less than 6kg for systems that are hermetically sealed).

J14 (Category IV) certificate holders may carry out leak checks on any size equipment provided that it does not entail breaking into the refrigeration circuit containing F-gases.

Candidates successfully completing the assessment will be issued with a certificate valid for five years. According to ConstructionSkills, renewing every five years helps to ensure the candidate is up to date with new information and practices that have arisen. It also provides evidence of Continual Professional Development.

After this period ConstructionSkills will offer candidates an opportunity to undertake a re-assessment of their category. The reassessment will only focus on key F-gas requirements and the updates during the five year period.

ConstructionSkills will continue to run the current portfolio of refrigeration categories alongside the new F-gas assessments.

Candidates successfully undertaking assessment after January 1 2009 will now be certificated for five years, rather than the three years previously offered. This means candidates undertaking a J11/J12 assessment who wish to enhance their qualification with the BRA-approved welding and brazing categories (J04 or J05) will now get the same five-year expiry date.

Approved centres

Approved centres are now coming on stream on a monthly basis, details of centres offering the new F-gas categories under the ConstructionSkills scheme can be found on web site: www.cskills.org/supportbusiness/trainingandassessment/bes/