White Card Gold Coast

CPCCWHS1001 - Prepare to work safely in the construction industry

Anyone wishing to work in the construction industry needs a White Card. White Cards are licenses required to enter construction sites on the Gold Coast and the rest of Australia. The White Card is also known as construction induction card.

Jump straight to the Gold Coast White Card training providers to book your course

How do I get a White Card in Queensland?

To obtain a White Card, you must complete construction induction training with a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). After completing your course, the RTO will issue your QLD White Card and a Statement of Attainment for the unit fo competency CPCCWHS1001 - Prepare to work safely in the construction industry.

The course takes 4-6 hours and teaches general construction safety. The White Card QLD course is nationally recognised and can be used to work in all states and territories in Australia.

How do you get a White Card on the Gold Coast?

To complete your induction White Card training you need to find an RTO delivering the White Card course on the Gold Coast.

To pick a suitable training provider you want to compare price, location, reviews and parking situation. Parking can be pretty expensive on the Gold Coast, and with the course running for 4 to 6 hours, it can add up very quickly.

Here is a list of providers offering face to face White Card training with a google review score of 4.5 or more on the Gold Coast. We have listed the main selection criteria as listed above to get you started quickly.

White Card Brisbane

We are also maintaining a list of Brisbane White Card training providers which can be found here.

Can you get a White Card online in QLD?

No, White Card training must be completed face to face in Queensland. Only residents living in remote locations can apply for an exemption (must reside 100km or more from the nearest RTO delivering the training face to face). As a result, Gold Coast and Brisbane residents do not qualify for online training.

Note that the QLD White Card course used to be available online to anyone in the past, and there are still many websites with outdated information on the subject. WorkSafe Queensland, which is the Government body responsible for workplace health and safety, changed the delivery criteria to face to face in 2019, essentially banning the online delivery to the vast majority of Queensland residents.

WorkSafe Queensland stated that the change was due to concerns about the quality and effectiveness of online training.

White Card course requirements

You must bring 3 pieces of identification to the training showing your full name, with at least one of them also containing your photo. Most students bring their driver's license, medicare card and credit/debit cards. You can also bring a Passport, Visa, bank statement, utility bill, student ID etc. View full list of accepted identification documents.

You will also need a Unique Student Identifier (USI), which has been introduced in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector in 2016. USIs can be created for free using the Government USI portal and take 5-10 minutes to create.

If you are completing your training face to face, you can wear plain clothes as the RTO will provide the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needed to complete the course. If you qualify for an exemption and decide to complete the course online, you will need to own or buy the following 4 pieces of PPE:

• Hard hat
• Retro-reflective vest or shirt
• Eye protection such as goggles or glasses
• Hearing protection such as earmuffs or earplugs

To complete your White Card training, you will need to have basic English literacy and numeracy skills. The course has a written component (often multi-choice questions), a verbal component as well as a demonstration component.

In the Verbal assessment, you will be asked to clarify instructions, verbally identify construction site hazards and their associated risks etc.

What does the White Card course teach?

The course aims to keep workers safe on construction sites through safety training. As part of your training, you will learn about:

• Basic roles, responsibilities and rights of duty holders according to jurisdictional health and safety legislative requirements
• Duty of care requirements
• Construction safe work practices
• Basic principles of risk management
• Construction hazards
• Purpose and use of PPE
• Measures for controlling hazards
• Health and safety documents
• Roles of designated health and safety personnel
• Safety signs and symbols
• Procedures for reporting hazards, incidents and injuries
• Procedures for responding to incidents and emergencies
• Procedures for accessing first aid
• Types and purpose of fire safety equipment

The course must be delivered by a qualified trainer and assessor with construction industry experience. Students are encouraged to ask and clarify questions during the training session.

WorkSafe Queensland refers to the White Card as the "General construction induction card". In addition to this general training, employers must induct workers with site-specific training prior to starting work on construction sites.

Who needs a White Card?

Anyone needing to enter a construction site.

This commonly includes, but is not limited to:

• Labourers
• Tradesmen such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers
• Managers and Supervisors
• Surveyors
• Workers that access operational construction zones unaccompanied or unsupervised
• Workers that routinely enter operational construction zones

Professionals with overseas experience and qualifications also need to complete the training, as some aspects and elements of the course such as signage, tags and procedures are specific to Australia. With Australia's high rate of skin cancer, the course also covers the hazards associated with the sun on open construction sites and how to prevent or mitigate the risks.

Can you get a White Card on a student visa?

The White Card course maps to the accredited unit of competency CPCCWHS1001 - Prepare to work safely in the construction industry. As an accredited unit, it is regulated by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), which requires RTOs to be on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) to deliver training to people on student visas.

Only universities and big training organisations with deep pockets go through the trouble (and cost) of getting CRICOS registered, and as such not many RTOs delivering the White Card course are CRICOS registered.

At the moment of writing, only Tafe Queensland is CRICOS registered to deliver the White Card course face to face, however they are fairly expensive and do not provide training on a regular basis.

You can find more information on the CRICOS website.

White Card replacement QLD

White Cards can be replaced if lost or damaged. To replace your QLD White Card, you must contact an RTO and provide evidence that you have completed the safety training by showing your statement of attainment for the unit of competency CPCCWHS1001 - Prepare to work safely in the construction industry.

Make sure that you keep the statement of attainment somewhere safe to avoid having to re-sit the course.

Construction Blue Card

If you completed your general induction training prior to 2008, you will have a Blue Card, which is the predecessor of the White Card. Blue Cards are still valid in Queensland and the rest of Australia, however they can't be replaced if lost or damaged. If your Blue Card gets lost or damaged, you will need to complete a current face to face White Card course in order to be allowed on construction sites.

Some employers will suggest that you complete a current White Card course to be up to scratch on your safety training.