Ask ten construction workers how many cards, certificates and log-in details they need to prove they're competent to be on site, and you'll likely get ten different answers. A CSCS card for site access. A CPCS card if you operate plant. An ECS card if you're an electrician. CISRS for scaffolding. Add in CITB-mandated training like SMSTS or SSSTS, plus a stack of employer inductions, toolbox talks and CPD certificates, and it's easy to see why the industry keeps circling back to the same question: why isn't this all just one card?
It's not a new debate. But it's picking up real momentum in 2026, driven by the Building Safety Act's tougher expectations around competence, a construction workforce under serious strain, and a genuine push from CSCS itself to turn its card into something closer to a true digital passport.
Why the pressure is building now
The backdrop matters here. CITB's latest Construction Workforce Outlook, published in June 2026, forecasts that the industry needs an extra 41,200 workers every year through to 2030 (around 206,000 people in total) just to grow the workforce to the 2.68 million needed to meet demand. Other CITB-derived estimates have put the figure as high as 250,000 additional workers by 2028, with well over 230,000 of those needed for net-zero retrofit alone.
At the same time, the workforce is ageing out faster than it's being replaced. Around a third of construction workers are over 50, and CITB projects three-quarters of a million will retire by 2036. Apprenticeship completion rates remain a persistent weak point too, with fewer than half of apprentices finishing their training, leaving the industry with under 9,000 fully qualified new apprentices a year against a need many multiples of that.
Put simply: the industry can't afford friction. Every hour lost to duplicate paperwork, every worker turned away at the gate because the wrong card is in the wrong wallet, and every recruiter or site manager manually chasing down qualification evidence is friction the sector doesn't have time for.
What's actually changing
CSCS has been quietly repositioning its card as more than a pass to get through the gate. The My CSCS app now functions as what CSCS itself calls a "digital skills passport", storing not just the card itself, but qualifications, training records, CPD, and additional evidence like fire safety or asbestos awareness training in one place. Verification has moved from a visual card check to CSCS Smart Check, a live database lookup that confirms a card is genuine, current and matched to the right occupation, a direct response to long-standing concerns about card fraud.
The Building Safety Act has accelerated this shift. Its emphasis on demonstrable competence, not just a qualification on paper, but evidence of Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Behaviour (SKEB) - is pushing CSCS and the wider CSCS Alliance of affiliated card schemes toward a more joined-up model of proving competence across occupations, rather than each scheme operating as its own silo.
That's progress. But it isn't yet the single, universal passport some in the industry want. Trades still sit under different schemes with different governing bodies, different renewal cycles and different assessment criteria. A "one card, every site" system would mean genuine interoperability between CSCS, CPCS, CISRS, ECS and the rest, not just each one going digital independently.
The case for one card and the case against
The argument for consolidation is straightforward: less duplication, faster onboarding, fewer workers unnecessarily turned away, and a single trusted source of truth that principal contractors, agencies and clients can all check against. For a mobile workforce moving between subcontractors and projects, one passport that travels with them, rather than a drawer full of cards, is an obvious efficiency win.
The counter-argument is just as real. Each scheme exists because it assesses genuinely different competencies, often governed by different industry bodies with their own standards and accountability. Merging them risks diluting specialist assessment into a generic pass, or handing control of a hugely varied workforce to a single body. There's also the practical question of who pays for and owns a unified system, and how smaller trades and training providers stay represented in it.
What it means for hiring
Whichever direction this goes, the direction of travel is clear: verification is becoming faster, more digital and more centralised, and competence is being scrutinised more closely than ever. For employers and hiring teams, that's a good thing, it should mean fewer compliance surprises and quicker, more reliable checks on who's genuinely qualified for a role. For candidates, it should mean less time spent chasing paperwork and more time being matched to the right site, the right project and the right pay grade based on what they can actually prove they can do.
At Caval, we already build compliance and qualification verification into every placement we make, across every division we work in. As the passport debate plays out, our role stays the same: making sure the right people, with the right proof of competence, get onto the right sites, however many cards it currently takes to get them there.