What this is
What is a competency card?
What is a competency card?
A competency card is a physical or digital credential showing what a named worker is authorised to do, carried by that worker and readable at the point of work. It typically lists the authorisations held, any restrictions on them, an expiry date, a photograph and a card number tied to a register entry. It is an extract of the authorisation records, not a record of competence in its own right.
What is a competency card issue record?
The issue record is the controlled act of putting a card into circulation. It captures who verified each authorisation before printing, what was printed on the card, the issue date and validity, the card number, whether a previous card was recovered, and the worker's acknowledgement of how the card is to be used and returned. Without that record the card is an unaccountable object with somebody's photograph on it.
Does a competency card authorise anything?
No. The authorisation is granted by the authorisation record and rests on the assessment behind it; the card reports that decision to whoever needs to check it quickly. This matters when the two disagree, because they eventually will: the register is right and the card is stale. Anyone treating the card as the decision has moved the site's authorisation control into a wallet.
Scope
When is a competency card issue required?
This record issues a credential once the decisions behind it have already been made. Using it earlier in the sequence, as the place where competence gets decided, produces cards that assert authorisations no assessment supports.
Use this template when
- A worker's authorisations have been confirmed and a first card is being issued for use at the point of work
- An authorisation has been added or removed and the card must be reprinted to match the register
- A card has been lost, damaged or become illegible and a replacement is being issued against the same register entry
- A re-evaluation or refresher has extended an authorisation and the card's validity date needs to move with it
- An agency or contractor worker needs a site credential that a supervisor or permit issuer can check without calling the office
Do not use it for
- Deciding that a named person may operate, which is Authorization to Operate (TRN-024); the card reports that decision and cannot make it
- Recording the observed demonstration of skill, which is the Skills Assessment (TRN-021) referenced from this record
- Confirming an external ticket or licence is genuine and current with the issuing body, which is Licence Verification (TRN-030)
- Tracking the population whose entitlements are about to lapse, which is the Expiry Review (TRN-033) and Certification Renewal Record (TRN-029)
- Sampling cards in circulation against the register, which is the Credential Audit (TRN-034) and is the only thing that finds the cards nobody returned
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 45001 cl.7.2 requirements does this satisfy?
Almost no regime requires a card. Several require a certification or authorisation record, and some sectors run scheme cards by contract or licence. The card therefore carries no weight of its own and inherits all of it from the record behind it, which is precisely why an out-of-date card is worse than no card at all.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 45001 cl.7.2 | Competence determined and ensured for each person, with the underlying evaluation completed before authorisation is relied on | Issue |
| OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(iii) | Powered industrial truck operator performance evaluated at least once every three years, which caps how long a truck authorisation on the card can be valid | Issue |
| OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(6) | Certification records the operator's name, the training and evaluation dates and who performed them; the card must not claim more than the certification supports | Card contents |
| UK GDPR Art.5(1)(c) | Data minimisation: the photograph and personal identifiers carried on a credential limited to what the on-the-spot check actually needs | Card contents |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Operational controls implemented at the point of work, with the criteria checkable where the work happens rather than in an office system | Header |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Control of documented information: distribution, access, retrieval, version control and prevention of the unintended use of obsolete copies | Control |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.3 | Workers aware of what applies to them and of the consequences of not conforming, including the duty to report a lost card and return it on leaving | Control |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.2(d) | Documented information retained as evidence of competence, traceable from the credential back to the assessment that supports it | Related records |
What it does not cover
- Authorization to Operate (TRN-024), which is the decision that a named person may carry out the work; the card is a print of that decision and cannot substitute for it.
- Skills Assessment (TRN-021), which holds the observed demonstration of competence, and is the record an inspector asks for when the card is produced.
- Licence Verification (TRN-030), which confirms with the issuing body that an external ticket is genuine and in date; printing it on a card verifies nothing.
- Expiry Review (TRN-033), which watches the population of entitlements approaching lapse; a card knows only its own date, and only if one was printed.
- Credential Audit (TRN-034), which reconciles cards in circulation against the register and is the only route to discovering the cards that were never handed back.
Global
Competency Card Issue requirements by country
The duty everywhere attaches to competence and to the record of it, not to the badge. Where cards are mandatory they arrive through sector schemes, client contracts or statutory licensing rather than through general health and safety law, and each of those has a different owner.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l), powered industrial truck operator training and certification
Certification of training and evaluation required per operator, with re-evaluation at least every three years. No badge is required.
A card with no certification record behind it is a citation waiting to happen, and the three-year evaluation clock is the practical ceiling on a truck authorisation's printed validity.
PUWER 1998 reg.9; industry card schemes such as CSCS, RTITB and ITSSAR
Statutory duty to provide adequate training for work equipment; card schemes are industry or client requirements sitting on top of it.
A scheme card evidences a scheme, not site authorisation. Sites that accept a CSCS or truck scheme card as authorisation to operate their equipment have skipped the equipment-specific and site-specific step HSE will ask about.
Directive 2009/104/EC on the use of work equipment; Framework Directive 89/391/EEC Art.12
Equipment presenting specific risks restricted to designated workers, with training on recruitment, transfer and change of equipment.
Designation is a formal act in most member state implementations, so the card must be traceable to a named designation and be withdrawn when the designation is.
Provincial OHS regulations; CSA B335 for lift truck operator training
Employer duty to ensure competence and authorisation, with B335 setting the operator training and authorisation expectation.
Provincial inspectors ask for the training and evaluation record and the employer's authorisation, and a card is accepted only as an index into them.
Model WHS Regulations, high risk work licence provisions
Certain classes of work require a regulator-issued licence held by the worker, alongside the employer's own duty to verify competence.
A company card must never be confused with a statutory licence. The employer still has to sight and record the licence, and the internal card sits beside it rather than replacing it.
ISO 45001, clauses 7.2, 7.3 and 7.5.3
Competence evidenced per person, and documented information controlled including distribution and prevention of obsolete use.
Certification auditors treat cards as controlled documented information: they will pull a card from a worker on the floor and trace it to the register, and an expired card in use is a clean cl.7.5.3 finding.
How to complete it
How to complete a competency card issue, step by step
Filling this form takes four minutes and the card looks the same however it is filled. Whether the credential is defensible in twelve months' time is decided by four judgements the printing process does not force anyone to make.
The quickest way to issue a card is to reprint the previous one with a new date, and it is the mechanism by which one unverified authorisation propagates for a decade. Check each authorisation being printed against its own record: the assessment, the licence verification, the medical where one applies. The verified-before-issue field is the whole point of the record, and answering it yes without opening anything is the finding that follows the incident.
A card listing forklift, confined space entry and first aid holds three clocks running at different speeds, and first aid certification is typically the fastest. If the card is valid until a date later than its earliest constituent authorisation, it will spend months asserting something untrue, and the assertion will be believed because it is printed. Take the earliest date, print it, and reissue when it moves.
Restrictions are where cards do their real work and where they are worst written. Counterbalance up to 2.5 tonnes only, no reach truck. Confined space entrant, not entry supervisor. Banksman required in the yard. A card marked subject to restrictions with nothing readable on it is a card that will be used unrestricted, which is why the form grades restrictions shown alongside none apply and separately from no.
Every credential scheme is judged on how it ends. Decide now what happens when a card is lost, when an authorisation is withdrawn mid-life after an incident, and when a worker leaves at short notice through an agency. The record captures the lost-card process, return on leaving and the register update because those three are the only defences against a population of live cards held by people the site no longer employs.
What auditors find
Most common competency card issue findings
Findings against card schemes are rarely that the card is missing. They are that the card and the register have drifted apart, and that nobody could say which of them the site was operating on.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Card in use showing an authorisation whose underlying evaluation has expired. | ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Print the earliest constituent expiry on the card and drive reissue from the expiry review, not from the worker noticing. |
| Card carries no expiry date, so its currency cannot be judged at the point of work. | OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(4)(iii) | Make the expiry a printed, mandatory element; an undated credential is treated as permanent by everyone who sees it. |
| Verified-before-issue answered yes with no evidence of what was checked against. | ISO 45001 cl.7.2 | Record the assessment or licence reference for each authorisation printed, and reject reprints from the previous card. |
| Authorisation withdrawn after an incident, but the card was never recovered or reissued. | ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Make withdrawal raise a card recovery task, and record the recovery on the register before the withdrawal is closed. |
| Leavers' cards not returned; the site cannot say how many cards are in circulation. | ISO 45001 cl.7.3 | Put card return into the exit process with a named owner, and reconcile issued against returned in the credential audit. |
| Restrictions exist on the authorisation but do not appear on the card. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Carry restrictions verbatim from the authorisation record to the card, in words a supervisor can act on. |
| Card register not updated at issue, so cards exist that no record accounts for. | ISO 45001 cl.7.5.3 | Gate printing on the register entry rather than the reverse; the card number is issued by the register. |
| No photograph, so the card evidences an authorisation but not that the bearer holds it. | OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(6) | Include the photograph and check the face at the permit desk; a transferable credential is not a credential. |
| Scheme or agency card accepted as site authorisation with no internal record. | ISO 45001 cl.7.2 | Verify the external card with the issuing body, then issue the site credential; the two are different claims. |
| Worker never briefed on what the card does not permit, and used it to secure a permit outside its scope. | ISO 45001 cl.7.3 | Brief and record at issue: what the card covers, what it does not, and what happens if it is used outside that. |
Case in point
Case in point: the card that was three years past its evaluation
A regional distribution centre issued competency cards to every truck operator, listing counterbalance, reach truck and pedestrian pallet truck as applicable. The cards were well made: photograph, card number, site logo, authorisations printed on the front. The reverse said the card remained the property of the company. No expiry date was printed, because the cards had been designed by a print supplier and nobody had specified one.
An agency reach truck operator drove a laden truck into a racking upright, dropping two pallets into an aisle a picker had left seconds earlier. The investigation asked the ordinary question: was he authorised. His card said reach truck and the shift manager had checked it at the start of every shift he worked. The register said his three-yearly evaluation had lapsed fourteen months earlier and that the agency had been notified. Nobody had asked for the card back, because the card and the register belonged to different people and only one of them was on the floor.
The follow-up audit was the part that changed the scheme. Cards issued numbered 214; cards accounted for numbered 151. The missing sixty-three included leavers, agency workers who had moved on, and one supervisor holding two cards with different authorisations. The corrective action was not better training. It was printing the earliest constituent expiry on every card, adding a QR code that resolved to the register entry, and making card return a signed step in the exit process.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
5 sections
- Reference
- TRN-032
- Archetype
- Record
- Record ID
- CARD-2026-000
- Scoring
- Not scored
- Direction
- n/a
- Singleton
- No
- Basis
- ISO 45001 cl.7.2
- Links
- Links Worker, Authorisation
- Tags
- Credentials
- Sections
- 5
- Fields
- 32
- Follow up fields
- 0
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 3
Header
9 fieldsCard ID*
Auto sequence. Format CARD-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Delivered By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Worker*
Person ID*
Format PER-0000.
Links to FDN-003 Person ID
Visible At The Point Of Work
Supervisors and permit issuers need to check authorisation in seconds, at the machine. A card does that. A database on somebody's desk does not.
Card contents
7 fieldsCard Type*
Photograph Included*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Expiry Date Shown*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Authorisations Listed*
Restrictions Shown
- Yes3 pts
- None apply3 pts
- No0 pts
Emergency Role Shown
First aider and fire warden markings help people find help quickly.
- Yes3 pts
- Not applicable3 pts
- No0 pts
QR Or Barcode Included
- Yes3 pts
- No1 pt
Issue
6 fieldsAll Authorisations Verified Before Issue*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Issue Date*
Valid Until*
Card Number*
Issued By*
Worker Briefed On Card Use*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Related records
1 fieldSkills Assessment ID
The assessment behind the card.
Links to TRN-021 Assessment ID
Control
9 fieldsPrevious Card Returned
- Yes3 pts
- First issue3 pts
- No0 pts
Lost Card Process Explained*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Return On Leaving Explained*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Card Register Updated*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Card Returned On Exit
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Training Coordinator*
Signature*
Worker*
Second Signature*
TRN-032 · record IDs look like CARD-2026-000 · Links Worker, Authorisation
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
Issuing a card is a five-minute task. What fails afterwards is the arithmetic: the expiry that moved, the authorisation that was withdrawn, the leaver who kept the card, and the register that nobody reconciled.
Holds the card register against the authorisation and assessment records, and blocks issue where an authorisation being printed has no current evidence behind it.
Puts the card into the checks that use it, so permit issue and pre-task authorisation verification resolve to the register rather than to the plastic.
Ties agency and contractor credentials to the engagement, so a card is issued on arrival, verified against the issuing body, and recovered when the engagement ends.
Watches expiries, withdrawals and leavers, raises the reissue or recovery task before the card goes stale, and reports issued against returned as one number.
This template lives in KnowTrain — training and credentials. Induction, competency, toolbox talks, refreshers and expiry tracking.
Meet KnowTrain→Glossary
Competency Card Issue definitions and key terms
- Authorisation
- The employer's decision that a named person may carry out a specified task, held in its own record and evidenced by an assessment; the thing a card reports.
- Credential
- A portable assertion about a person's authorisations, physical or digital, whose value depends entirely on being traceable to a live record.
- Card register
- The controlled list of every card issued, its number, holder, contents, validity and status, against which cards in circulation are reconciled.
- Restriction
- A stated limit on an authorisation, such as a capacity ceiling, an attachment exclusion or a supervision requirement, which must be legible on the card to have any effect.
- Validity date
- The date the card stops being trustworthy, properly set to the earliest expiry among the authorisations it carries rather than a fixed period from issue.
- Digital badge
- A credential rendered on a device or wallet, whose advantage is that it can be revoked centrally and its risk is that it cannot be read where there is no signal.
- Emergency role marking
- First aider or fire warden identification carried on the card so that people needing help can find it without consulting a list.
- Return on exit
- The recovery of the card when employment or engagement ends, which is what stops a live credential leaving site in somebody's pocket.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about competency card issue
Should the card show an expiry date?+
Always, and it should be the earliest expiry among the authorisations printed on it. An undated card is read as valid by every supervisor who checks it, indefinitely, and that reading is reasonable because nothing on the card says otherwise. The alternative some sites choose, printing an issue date only, still requires the reader to know the refresher interval for each authorisation, which nobody does at the permit desk.
Physical card, digital badge, or both?+
Both, in most industrial settings. The digital badge is the better control because it can be revoked centrally the moment an authorisation is withdrawn, and it holds more than a card face will. The physical card is the better instrument because it works in a chill store with wet gloves and no signal. Run the badge as the authority and the card as the convenience, with a QR code so the two reconcile on the spot.
What happens when an authorisation is withdrawn mid-life?+
The card is recovered and reissued, and the withdrawal is not closed until that has happened. This is the case every scheme handles badly, because withdrawal usually follows an incident and attention is elsewhere. A withdrawn authorisation with the card still in circulation is the worst state the system can be in: the site has decided the person may not do the work and has left them holding the document that says they may.
Can a contractor's own scheme card be accepted?+
As evidence for verification, not as authorisation. A scheme card tells you the holder passed a scheme test at some point; it says nothing about your equipment, your layout, or whether the card is current. Verify it with the issuing body, record that verification, then issue your own credential for work on your site. Accepting the card as authorisation transfers your competence duty to a scheme that has no idea your site exists.
Who should sign the issue record?+
Both parties. The training coordinator signs that every authorisation was verified against its source before printing; the worker signs that they have been briefed on what the card covers, what it does not, what to do if it is lost, and that it is returned on leaving. The second signature is the one that matters after an incident, because the alternative is an argument about whether anyone explained the limits.
Should the whole competency matrix go on the card?+
No. A card carrying every skill a person holds becomes unreadable and therefore unchecked, and it drags the card's validity down to the fastest-expiring trivial item. Put the authorisations a supervisor or permit issuer needs to verify at the point of work, plus emergency roles, and leave the rest in the matrix where it can be reported on properly.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Used together in Worker Competency and Credentials
Competency Framework Register
Holds the competencies the organisation recognises, with what each one means and how it is assessed
Driver Licence and Entitlement Check
Checks driver licence validity, categories, endorsements and any restrictions with the issuing authority
Electrical Competency Authorisation
Authorises a named person to carry out defined electrical activities on this site, with the limits stated
Competency Matrix
Shows which skills and training each role requires and who currently holds them
Skills Assessment
Assesses whether a worker can actually perform a task to standard, by watching them do it
Training Needs Analysis
Works out the gap between the skills a role needs and the skills people have
More in Credentials
Certification Register
Holds each worker's external certifications, tickets and licences with expiry dates
Certification Renewal Record
Records the renewal of a certification before it expires
Licence Verification
Confirms a licence or ticket is genuine and current, by checking with the issuing body
External Training Record
Records training delivered by an outside provider, with certificate attached
Expiry Review
Reviews all certifications due to expire in the coming period
Credential Audit
Audits a sample of worker records to confirm certifications on file are genuine, current and match what people are doing
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- ISO 45001:2018 clauses 7.2, 7.3, 7.5.3 and 8.1.1
- OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178(l), powered industrial truck operator training, evaluation and certification (US)
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulation 9 (GB)
- Directive 2009/104/EC concerning the use of work equipment by workers (EU)
- CSA B335, Safety standard for lift trucks (Canada)
- Model WHS Regulations, high risk work licensing provisions (Australia)
- UK GDPR Article 5(1)(c), data minimisation, as applied to credential data
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.