SMSTS Course – Site Managers Safety Training Scheme

SMSTS stands for Site Managers Safety Training Scheme. It sets an industry standard for health and safety management, as well as the welfare of workers on construction sites. This CITB qualification helps site managers develop their knowledge and create a strong safety culture for employees.

The CITB SMSTS course isn’t just for aspiring and existing site managers. The course is also beneficial for other people who work in a supervisory or managerial role on construction sites. This includes project managers, directors and business owners.

No, the SMSTS training course does not lead to a managers/black CSCS card. However, the course can improve job prospects and support the NVQ required for getting the card.

The training is delivered across five consecutive days in a classroom setting. This is a block course with intensive training, followed by an exam.

There’s also a day release option that allows you to come to training one day a week over the course of 5 weeks.

Yes, we’re able to deliver SMSTS weekend courses on request. Get in touch with our team to find out more.

The site manager’s course generally has a high pass rate. If you prepare and pay attention during the course, the test should be relatively straightforward. However, the course is intensive and there’s a lot of detailed information to remember. So we recommend taking plenty of notes and asking questions during training.

It’s also important to revise before the exam. The exam will have 18 multiple-choice questions, as well as 7 short written-answer questions.

Yes, we offer a remote option. A link will be emailed to you to begin the online SMSTS course.

Our SMSTS online training will be delivered through a live classroom over video call. Delegates will have access to a CITB instructor and will engage in various group work such as discussions and presentations. Digital materials will also be provided to support study and revision.

Your certificate lasts for five years. To keep your qualification, you will need to sit a refresher course before the certificate’s expiry date. The refresher course is two days and completing it will renew the qualification for another five years.

No, all SMSTS refresher courses need to be done before the expiry shown on your certificate. If employees do not get booked onto the course in time, they will need to re-sit the whole 5-day training course again.

Grants are offered through the CITB Employer Network on a match-funded basis. This is at 50% of the course cost and has to be agreed in advance with an Engagement Officer.

To be eligible, companies should register with CITB and submit annual Levy Returns. Grants are then automatically provided if you book through an approved provider, like The Safety Maintenance Company. For all other providers, you will need to send a manual application.