How to Pass the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey

The Level 5 NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) in Utility Surveying is a recognized certification that validates the skills and knowledge of professionals in the field. 

If you're pursuing this qualification, you may be wondering how to successfully pass the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey. As such, below are some valuable tips and insights to help you achieve success.

Understanding the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey

The Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey is designed to assess an individual's competence in utility surveying, including knowledge of relevant legislation, surveying techniques, equipment operation, and data interpretation. 

It is a comprehensive utility mapping qualification that demonstrates your ability to carry out utility surveys effectively and safely. This means individuals are required to have an in-depth understanding of the field with sufficient knowledge of how strategies and techniques can be applied in a practical way. 

Tips for Passing the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey

• Familiarize Yourself with the Requirements: Start by thoroughly understanding the requirements and assessment criteria of the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey. Read the available qualification specifications and assessment guidelines provided by the awarding body to gain a clear understanding of what is expected from you.
• Study and Prepare: Take the time to study the relevant topics and materials. You may have existent experience of the field and processes, but it’s important to get the theory nailed down too, so you can provide sufficient answers in assessments. As such, review textbooks, industry publications, and resources specific to utility surveying. Familiarize yourself with relevant legislation, surveying techniques, equipment operation, and data interpretation.
• Gain Practical Experience: Practical experience is crucial for success in the utility surveying field. If possible, seek opportunities to apply your knowledge and skills in real-world scenarios. Work alongside experienced professionals, participate in fieldwork, and practice using surveying equipment and software. This hands-on experience will strengthen your understanding and confidence in utility surveying techniques.
• Build a Portfolio: Keep a record of your work and projects related to utility surveying. Develop a portfolio that showcases your practical experience, including completed surveys, data analysis, and any innovative approaches or problem-solving techniques you have implemented. This portfolio can serve as evidence and case studies of your competence during the assessment process.
• Seek Guidance and Feedback: Engage with experienced professionals in the utility surveying field. Seek their guidance, ask questions, and request feedback on your work. Their insights and expertise can provide valuable perspectives and help you refine your skills and knowledge.
• Practice Time Management: The Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey assessment often includes practical assignments and time-limited tasks. Practice effective time management skills during your preparation to ensure you can complete tasks within the given time frame. This will also help you manage your workload during the assessment itself.
• Be Well Prepared for Assessment Interviews: The Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey assessment may involve interviews to evaluate your knowledge, understanding, and decision-making abilities. Prepare by reviewing key concepts, legislation, and industry best practices. Anticipate potential questions and practice articulating your answers confidently and clearly.

Get Stuck In

Passing the Level 5 NVQ Utility Survey requires dedication, preparation, and practical experience, but it’s also an incredibly rewarding endeavor that can lead to better competency in the field as well as future job opportunities.

By following these tips, familiarizing yourself with the requirements, and seeking guidance from industry professionals, you can increase your chances of success and demonstrate your competence in utility surveying.

An Essential Step Before Any Form Of Digging Or Excavation

Before undertaking any form of digging or excavation, it is vital to conduct a thorough survey of the site for underground services. This essential process helps to identify and locate various utility lines, pipelines, and cables that may be hidden beneath the surface. They can be anywhere and everywhere.

By utilizing advanced techniques and equipment, operatives can minimise the risk of accidents, damage, and costly disruptions. It is necessary to follow EUSR HSG47 guidelines in ensuring safe excavation practices.

Underground services encompass a wide range of critical infrastructures, such as gas pipelines, water mains, electricity cables, telecoms, and sewer networks. Almost all of these services are concealed underground, making them invisible to the naked eye. Ignoring their presence and embarking on excavation work without proper surveying can have severe consequences, including service disruptions, injuries, and on occasion can be fatal.

The main reason for surveying underground services is to prevent accidental damage. Digging without accurate knowledge of the location of utility lines can result in striking and rupturing these services, leading to gas leaks, water main bursts, electrical outages, and other hazardous situations. Such incidents can have devastating consequences for the surrounding area, its inhabitants, and the workers involved.

EUSR HSG47, short for Energy & Utility Skills Register Health and Safety Guidance 47, is a set of guidelines that emphasises the importance of surveying underground services. These guidelines provide industry best practices and establish a framework for ensuring safe excavation procedures. By adhering to them, companies and workers can reduce the risk of accidents, comply with regulatory requirements, and protect the integrity of essential infrastructure.

A Range Of Technologies

Surveying for underground services involves various methods and technologies, including ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic locators, and utility mapping software. Ground-penetrating radar is particularly effective in detecting underground objects by sending electromagnetic waves into the ground and measuring the reflections. Electromagnetic locators, on the other hand, utilise magnetic fields to identify services such as metallic pipes and cables. These tools, combined with fully trained operatives, enable accurate mapping of underground services and help reduce potential risks.

The benefits of surveying for underground services extend beyond accident prevention. By conducting comprehensive surveys, project managers and contractors can plan excavation activities more efficiently, optimising resource allocation and avoiding unnecessary delays. Understanding the layout and depth of underground services allows for better co-ordination, reducing the likelihood of conflicts and clashes during construction.

Surveying for underground services is an indispensable precaution before undertaking any digging or excavation project. It is a crucial step to prevent accidental damage, protect essential infrastructure, and ensure the safety of workers and the surrounding community.

 

Underground Services Can Be Absolutely Anywhere

There is an old saying “Out of sight, out of mind” and that is very true when it comes to undertaking any sort of work which involves digging into the earth. Nobody knows for sure, but it is estimated that in the UK there are at least 1.5 million km of underground services in the UK – electricity, gas, water, sewers, telecoms, and so on – so they can literally be anywhere.

Yes, we know there are obvious places like your local High Street where there will be all of those in most cases, although, of course, some areas do not have gas. But there are other places that you might not consider, such as your own front garden!

Yes, you have those services running into your home, don’t you? You may want to put up a new fence along the front of your home, but do you know where those services run? Probably not. Certainly, they may be at a greater depth than you need to dig to install a few fence posts, but then how do you know?

But when you are talking about construction work or digging down to repair existing services, you just have no way of knowing what is under your feet. This is why it is vital to undertake a thorough survey before beginning any sort of work involving excavation, and yet it is estimated that over 40% of all such excavation works are undertaken without a thorough search beforehand!

HSG47

The Health & Safety Executive has produced a very good guide called HSG47. Indeed, to use another old phrase, every business involved in any sort of excavation work should “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest”HSG47.

One should also obtain STATS – plans of underground services – from the utility suppliers in the area, but these are insufficient on their own, for many reasons. They can only be used as a guide.

It is essential to undertake a thorough site survey using the CAT and Genny before beginning the work. Clever as these tools are, they need to be used in combination, and users also need to undertake proper instruction in order to fully understand how to operate them.

At Sygma Solutions, our purpose in life is to provide operatives with outstanding training in the use of the CAT and Genny in all their modes so that you can be confident when using them under any sort of conditions and also, vitally, be aware of their limitations. They do have certain limitations and it is critical to understand them so that no errors are made.

CAT Training: Why Is It Important?

Cable strikes can be fatal for the operatives working at the site, the service users, and the service providers. A little professional CAT training can put an end to all possible hazards. Sygma Solutions has been devoted to providing interested people just that for years. With proper training, we have succeeded in operatives and utility engineers to avoid cable strike risks.

Importance of cable location training

Safety in both senses, physical and financial, is the fundamental importance of such training.

Safety of the worker

The operatives and the utility engineers working at the site are at the highest risk of getting injured from cable strikes. Using machinery like excavators around live cables causes fatal injuries to the workers. Prior risk assessment and consulting the cable records can prevent these. CAT training teaches all of these. 

The problem for the community

With a cable strike, the area through which the cable runs will face serious problems. If it is a TV cable, the televisions of the whole locality will not run. Cables may run through unusual areas like a golf course and football grounds. So, a cable strike might put a match on hold. 

Problems for businesses

Cable strikes affect businesses also. A damaged cable may stop the CCTVs from working, cause power cuts, etc. Construction companies may face disruptions in their work. It affects their reputation and adversely impacts business opportunities. 

Problems with the cable service provider

The companies whose cables get struck while excavating face enormous losses. Repairing the cables, re-establishing the service, justifying the issue to the service users, etc., might cause unwanted hindrances. So, if the engineers already have cable location training, they can help the companies avoid such problems. 

What are the basics of CAT training

While Sygma Solutions is a trusted stop for anyone desiring to acquire training, there are a few basic steps to a successful planning process. These include:

• Studying cable records and utility maps before taking up any excavation projects
• Ground checking beforehand to make sure there is any live cable
• Using equipment to locate cable and pipes
• Observing safe practices for digging
• Consulting with the cable service provider before starting the excavation and thoroughly assessing the cable reports

Appropriate and accredited training from an authorised training provider enables a professional to overcome the potential hazards of cable strikes. Contact Sygma Solutions today for all your training needs.

 

The CAT AndGenny Are Clever Tools But Do Have Some Limitations

At Sygma Solutions, our utility surveyor training covers absolutely everything that an operative needs to know in order to undertake an onsite survey for the location of underground services. While we have some very clever tools available to carry out such surveys, unfortunately nothing in this life is perfect and there are some circumstances where it may not be possible to obtain a reading indicating the presence of a service, so it is essential to take these into consideration.

Any such survey should begin with the use of the CAT – Cable Avoidance Tool – and Genny – Signal Generator. Something such as the RD8100 locator works on electromagnetic principles and can be used for tracing electricity cables and metallic pipes. It can be used in passive mode or induction mode or by direct connection. If there is a live cable or metallic pipe it will emit a power or radio signal which can be picked up by the RD8100 at the surface in passive mode.

If this doesn’t produce a signal, the equipment can be switched to induction. In this case the Genny is set on the ground, and it emits a signal into the ground which should “attach” itself to the service and travel down its’ length and this can be picked up by the RD8100 in induction mode.

Direct Attachment

If neither of these works, then the Genny can be attached to the utility at source with a clamp or clip leads to generate a signal. Obviously, this requires direct access to the utility which might be a cable riser, inspection chamber, stop valve, or plant room. This may be an issue if the utility connection point is behind locked doors or cannot be found. All of this is covered in our utility surveyor training.

Once one has exhausted all of these possibilities, it is then time to use GPR. We provide GPR training as well, of course, using the Mala HDR or HDR Pro. These are mounted on a trolley which is then pushed over the ground with the intention of looking for differences in the soil density which could indicate the presence of services.

Our GPR training also points out its limitations. The radar unit needs to be as close to the ground as possible because otherwise it will not operate, so it can be a problem over rough ground. There can also be issues with wet or clay soils or if there is a lot of rubble, because the signal may be too weak, or it may be jumbled with too many peaks and troughs where the ground is disturbed. It tends to work best on flat ground without too many bumps and dips in it.

60,000 Cable Strikes A Year! That’s A BIG Number!

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous in which to work when it comes to injuries suffered and fatalities. Figures produced by the HSE show that there were an average 36 fatalities in construction from 2016 – 2021 (Source: RIDDOR, 2020/21). Of these, 50% are a result of falls from a height. However, around a dozen each year are the result of injuries suffered when striking underground services such as electricity cables, gas pipes, and so on.

When it comes to any sort of excavation work, it is estimated that there are some 4 million excavations carried out every year for the purpose of laying pipes or cables for new services and repairing existing ones, and this results in approximately 60,000 cable strikes each year. That may seem like a relatively small percentage, but nonetheless, 60,000 is a big number! You can very easily argue that it is 60,000 too many!

Why does this happen so often? Surely you can get plans from local utility companies in the site area and then you will know where cables and pipes run?

Well, yes and no. For any number of reasons, plans, or STATS as they are known, can often be inaccurate - not least because there is no unified way of keeping records - and sometimes they do not exist. You can use them as a guide, but you must treat them with caution.

The Answer Is A Thorough Underground Survey

 

The only answer is to undertake a thorough underground survey of the site before commencing any work, using the CAT and Genny, and also GPR.

But here’s the thing: figures from Safety & Health Practitioner in 2019 showed that of the 4 million excavations in 2017, only 2.25 million “involved a thorough search for pipes and cables before the work commenced”. That’s 44% of excavations that were carried out without a proper survey! Now you can begin to see why that figure of 60,000 cable strikes occurs.

At Sygma Solutions we provide HSG47 training (HSG47 is the guide produced by the HSE for safety when digging) which includes the use of the tools involved such as the C.Scope. Our C.Scope training teaches operatives the use of this tool in all modes, and importantly the limitations that it has. This is a vital constituent of our C.Scope training because all these tools - not just the C.Scope – can sometimes seem to indicate that nothing is on the site when it is!

So, our HSG47 training tells operatives what to look out for and how to handle it. For example, one situation is where the service is at a depth below which the tools can read! It is still there. So, we teach operatives to commence digging carefully down to about a foot, and then take another reading. This time around, it may well show the service.

A Qualification In Cable Avoidance Is Essential On Many Construction Sites

Possibly one of the most dangerous jobs in the construction industry occurs right at the beginning of a new building, because it involves digging into the ground in order to build the foundations.

The problem is that, when you dig down into the earth’s surface, even if only a few feet, there is always the chance of a cable strike. Virtually all of our utilities, apart from some areas where the phone lines are still on telegraph poles (remember those?) run underground. Out of sight, which is fine, but also out of mind in a lot of instances, which is not fine.

Whether you are using a hand shovel or a mechanical digger, it is possible to hit all sorts of different underground services such as gas, water, electricity, sewage pipes, telecoms, and more, unless the company carrying out the contract has carried out a full survey and obtained plans from the local utilities. On their own, plans cannot be relied upon for a number of different reasons, but they can be used as a guide.

A Thorough Survey Is Essential

This means that, before carrying out any sort of excavation work it is essential to undertake a thorough survey of the site using the CAT and Genny in order to avoid a cable strike and the resultant serious injuries that can occur. Once underground services have been located and identified it is then possible to mark them out on the ground surface so that workers will not unwittingly hit them when digging.

In order to locate and identify such services, operatives need to be fully conversant with every type of service and fully up to speed with the tools used to locate them, these being in large part the CAT and Genny, although GPR, Ground Penetrating Radar, is also used.

The latest technology is actually very clever, but it is not infallible. For instance, GPR can be difficult to use over rough ground. Some equipment may not be able to read as deeply as a service is laid. And more.

At Sygma Solutions we run training courses that teach operatives everything that they need to know. We should do, because between us we have over 100 years of experience. We can train operatives so that they can achieve a qualification for cable avoidance.

In more and more areas today, such as HS2, Network Rail, and many others, it is essential to have a qualification in cable avoidance before you are even allowed to work for them, so the training that we provide enables operatives to work on such sites.