The British
Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), the leading trade association for
landscape professionals in the UK, has announced its adoption of Go Smart and
SkillSight, developed by Reference Point, to enhance its Land-Based Industry
Skills Card Scheme (LISS).
LISS/CSCS is a
recognised Partner Card Scheme, for the Construction Skills Certification
Scheme (CSCS), which BALI solely administers.
Go Smart is a free
app for reading LISS/CSCS smartcards, that can easily be downloaded to Android
and Windows smartphone and tablet devices, as well as Windows Desktop.
The suite of Go
Smart apps links to SkillSight, an online training management system, that
connects training records to an operative’s smartcard. By combining data stored
on someone’s card with data stored in SkillSight, a cardholder’s identity,
qualifications, training history and health and safety training can be obtained
by reading their card with Go Smart.
Within the Go Smart
app, core qualifications that have been recognised by LISS/CSCS, will be
surfaced on the card under a ‘Core Data’ tab. This core data will include all
the relevant information that has been entered and approved by BALI, to award
that person the LISS/CSCS card. Any additional qualifications that have been
entered into SkillSight by an organisation, will appear under a separate
‘SkillSight’ tab, and will show who has entered them and a link to that
organisation’s website.
BALI’s Chief
Executive, Wayne Grills, commented on Go Smart: “By combining the power and
ingenuity of SkillSight with Go Smart, BALI’s LISS/CSCS smartcards can now
store the cardholders training and qualification data, which can be accessed
with little effort by site managers at construction site entrances, ensuring
they are qualified for the job they do on site. This can also help eradicate
counterfeit cards that may have entered the chain.
“For smaller
companies, this news presents a welcome relief, as they no longer need to
invest in internal training databases, saving on resource, as SkillSight and Go
Smart provide that technology for them.”
The core
functionality offered by SkillSight remains free of charge, with optional,
paid-for add-ons launching next year, along with possible plans to launch
support for Apple iPhone and MAC users who utilise the Safari browser.
LISS/CSCS helps
support and promote specialist areas of work in landscape and maintenance,
arboriculture, pesticides, ecology and environmental management, amenity,
countryside management and modular paving.
