Turned away at the gate on a Monday.
Solved Expiries counted down, with reminders before anything lapses.
Training, competence and e-learning
A training matrix that keeps
A training matrix that keeps
every card and ticket in date.
Unibuild is training matrix and training management software for UK trades. Classroom courses are booked, e-learning is taken on the phone, and every card, ticket and certificate sits in one grid that warns before anything expires.
Try it
Six people, six things
Six people, six things
that expire.
People down the side, qualifications across the top, the expiry in the cell. Wind the date on and it colours itself. One card has already gone.
Wind the date forward
Go on, pick a month
| Operative | CSCS cardCard | First aid at workTicket | SSSTSTicket | Asbestos awarenessE-learning | Working at heightE-learning | Manual handlingE-learning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Fenton Electrician | Not held | |||||
| M. Whitfield Improver | Not held | Not held | ||||
| J. Hadley Labourer | Not held | Not held | ||||
| D. Marsden Agency | Not held | |||||
| T. Ashcroft Plumber | ||||||
| G. Whitaker Groundworker | Not held | Not held | ||||
| Current today | 5 of 6 | 3 of 6 | 1 of 6 | 5 of 6 | 6 of 6 | 6 of 6 |
Scroll sideways for the other courses
3 reminders have already gone, without anybody opening this grid. The job emails whoever is assigned, seven days out and daily once overdue.
Pick any cell to add its certificate.
2ExpiredIn date when somebody last looked
6Expiring within 90 daysWhat a main contractor is really asking
20CurrentCertificate attached to each one
Current
Within 90 days
Expired
Not held
Reminder sent
Problems we solve
Eleven training problems. All eleven solved.
From the card that expired on Friday to the course nobody knows was attended.
Sent to site without the right ticket.
Solved Competence shows on the labour run before the job is allocated.
A matrix that was right at the last audit.
Solved One live grid that recolours itself as dates pass.
Certificates in three places at once.
Solved Each certificate is attached to its entry on the person.
E-learning in another portal, with another login.
Solved Courses taken on the phone. Completion lands on the matrix.
Courses booked by email, attendance on a sheet.
Solved Classroom courses booked in Unibuild. Attendance and certificates follow.
Nobody knows what each role should hold.
Solved Required training set per role, so gaps show and new starters are assigned.
A card nobody has checked is genuine.
Solved CSCS cards checked against the register, not typed in.
The PQQ asks for the matrix. It gets retyped.
Solved An A3 export straight from the live record.
After an incident, nobody can prove competence.
Solved A dated record with the certificate, on the person’s file.
No idea what training costs the firm.
Solved Course costs recorded per person, course and period.
11/11Solved in one module
Book a demo →
In plain terms
A training matrix is a grid of people against qualifications, showing who holds what and when it runs out. On site it is also the document a main contractor asks for before your people get through the gate, and the one an auditor asks for afterwards.
Unibuild holds every qualification, card, ticket and e-learning course your people hold in one grid that colours itself when something has expired, with the certificate file attached to each entry and a single-page A3 export you can hand to a main contractor or an auditor without reformatting anything.
How competence is usually tracked
Accurate on the day it was built. Reviewed at the last audit.
Which is the honest description of almost every training matrix in the industry.
Certificates
A lever arch file, a shared drive organised by year, and a phone camera roll.
Three places at once
Cards
In wallets and vans. Nobody in the office has seen the back of one since it was issued.
Unverified
Monday morning
The gateman scans it. It expired eleven days ago. He goes home.
A day, and a reputation
E-learning
Its own portal, its own login, certificates emailed to whoever booked the course.
Nowhere near the cards
The auditor asks
For asbestos awareness in the last twelve months. Two days of trawling email.
Two days
The PQQ
The spreadsheet is reformatted, dates are guessed, and the two versions diverge.
Sent, and now wrong
What the module does
Six things a spreadsheet of names and dates cannot.
One grid,
colouring itself
People down the side, qualifications across the top, and the cell colours itself when something has expired rather than waiting for a person to notice it.
- Expired is a state the grid shows, not a date you compare
- So the matrix is right on a Tuesday as well as at audit
- Cards, tickets, qualifications and courses in one place
- Not three systems and a camera roll
Current, not last reviewedLive
The certificate
is attached
Each entry carries its own certificate file, so the evidence and the record are the same object rather than a date in a grid and a PDF somewhere else.
- Card scans, front and back, held on the person
- Provider certificates alongside the cards they belong with
- Which is what an auditor is actually asking to see
- Findable in seconds rather than in two days
The date and the proof, togetherLive
E-learning in
the same place
Thirty-nine tracked courses, from asbestos awareness and working at height to COSHH, manual handling and CDM awareness, held against the person rather than in the provider's portal.
- So completion is visible next to the card it supports
- Not emailed to whoever happened to book the course
- The general induction and awareness training, evidenced
- Per person, per course, with the date
One portal, not twoLive
An A3 you can
hand over
A single-page export of the matrix, produced from the live record, for a main contractor asking at pre-qualification or an auditor asking on the day.
- Generated rather than reformatted, so it cannot diverge
- The version they get is the version you hold
- No dates guessed at to fill a gap in a template
- Which is the difference at a PQQ
Produced, not preparedLive
Watched, not
remembered
Expiries are counted down rather than relying on a diary note or a recurring calendar entry set by somebody who has since left the business.
- Renewals surface before the gateman finds them
- Which is a day of work rather than a lost one
- And a client who never hears about it
- The reminder does not leave when the person does
Before Monday, not on itLive
On the person,
not in a folder
Training sits on the same personnel record as everything else about that individual, so competence, documents, assessments and cost rate are one file rather than four.
- The record survives them leaving
- And it is the same record the labour run allocates from
- Which is what makes it worth keeping current
- One person, one file, one truth
Part of the person, not a systemLive
Ask how many of your cards expire in the next ninety days.
Almost nobody can answer that from a spreadsheet without an afternoon's work, and it is the question a main contractor is effectively asking every time somebody arrives at a gate.
Book a demo →
30 minutes. The demo runs on our own data.
What it is worth when somebody checks
The three moments a training matrix actually gets read.
Nobody looks at it the rest of the time, which is exactly why it has to be right without anybody looking at it.
At the gate, on a Monday
A card scanned and rejected costs a day of work, a difficult phone call and a client who remembers. It is the most expensive way to discover an expiry and the most common, because it is the only check in the process that actually happens automatically.
At pre-qualification
A main contractor asks for the matrix. The spreadsheet version gets reformatted, gaps get filled with estimates, and the copy sent to the client immediately starts diverging from the one held internally. An export generated from the live record cannot do that.
After something has happened
The question is whether the person doing the work was competent to do it, and the answer has to be a record with a date rather than a recollection. This is the moment the certificate being attached to the entry rather than filed separately stops being administrative tidiness.
The Health and Safety at Work Act duty
Section 2(2)(c) requires an employer to provide such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary. The matrix is the documentary record that it was provided and when, with the provider's certificate attached to each entry.
Visibility by default, blocking if you want it
Competence is recorded and surfaced before the work is allocated, so out of the box the control is visibility rather than a hard block. Plenty of firms want it that way, because a card that lapsed yesterday should not strand a team at seven in the morning. If you would rather an expiry stopped an allocation outright, that is a rule we write into your system at implementation. Both versions exist because Unibuild is bespoke software, built to the firm rather than shipped as one behaviour for everybody. Changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee.
Cards are only half of it
A CSCS card says somebody has passed a test. The e-learning record says what they have actually been trained on this year. Holding both against the same person is what turns a card check into a competence position, and it is the half most firms keep somewhere else entirely.
The matrix is one column of a bigger record.
Competence sits on the same personnel file as documents, assessments, dated cost rates and access, which is what makes it worth keeping current.
See the personnel record →
Or call the office on UK hours
Questions
Asked by whoever
Asked by whoever
fills in the PQQ.
How are we warned before a card or ticket runs out?
Every expiry is counted down on the matrix. A cell turns amber within ninety days of its date and red once it has passed, so the grid is right on a Tuesday as well as at audit. A reminder emails whoever is assigned seven days before expiry, then daily once it is overdue. The renewal is booked before the gateman finds it, without anybody opening the grid.
Will it stop somebody without a current ticket being sent to site?
Yes, in the way you choose. Training sits on the same personnel record the labour run allocates from, so competence is visible before anybody is sent. By default it warns. If you want an expiry to stop an allocation outright, we write that rule into your system at implementation.
Where do the actual certificates live?
Attached to the entry they belong to, uploaded or emailed in, so the date and the evidence are one record. Card scans are held front and back on the person. When an auditor asks who has had asbestos awareness in the last twelve months, the answer is a filter rather than two days of trawling email. The record stays on file after the person leaves.
Can we hand the matrix straight to a main contractor or an auditor?
Yes. A single-page A3 export is produced from the live record, so what the client receives is what you hold. Nothing is reformatted for their template, and no date is guessed to fill a gap. Their copy and yours stay the same document.
Are CSCS cards checked as genuine?
Yes. Unibuild checks CSCS cards against the register rather than taking a typed-in number on trust. The scan of the card is kept on the person, front and back, next to the result.
Does it cover e-learning and classroom courses as well as cards?
Yes, in the same grid. Operatives take e-learning on their phone in your firm’s own staff app, with thirty-nine courses from asbestos awareness and working at height to COSHH, manual handling and CDM awareness. Completion and the certificate land on the matrix by themselves. Classroom and external courses are scheduled in Unibuild, people are booked on, attendance is recorded per person, and certificates are added to each record.
Can we set the training each role should hold?
Yes. Each role or trade carries its list of required tickets and courses, so gaps show on the matrix automatically rather than when a main contractor asks. A new starter is assigned what their role needs from day one.
What about subcontractors’ competence?
Your own people sit in this module. Subcontract firms are managed as firms on the subcontractor portal, with their insurances, accreditations and compliance documents watched, so expired cover removes them from selection overnight. You hold competence for your employees, and evidence of competence for the firms you engage.
Can we see what training costs the firm?
Yes. The cost of each course is recorded against the person, so training spend shows by person, by course or by period. It sits next to the renewals coming up, so next year’s training budget is a report rather than a guess.
Does it satisfy our legal duty on training?
It gives you the documentary record. Section 2(2)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires an employer to provide the information, instruction, training and supervision that is necessary. The matrix evidences that it was provided, to whom and when, with the certificate attached. Deciding what training your work needs stays with you as the employer.
What software keeps a training matrix and certificate expiry for a trade or construction workforce?
Unibuild’s training matrix holds every card, ticket, qualification and e-learning course against the person, with the certificate attached and the expiry date on the record. The grid turns amber before something runs out and red once it has, and reminders go to whoever is assigned. CSCS cards are checked against the register, and thirty-nine e-learning courses sit in the same grid. A single-page A3 export goes to a main contractor or an auditor straight from the live record.
Can I try a training matrix without booking a demo?
There is a working one on this page: six operatives and six cards, tickets and courses, with one CSCS card already eleven days expired. Pick a month ahead and every cell recolours itself, with the counts moving underneath. Click any cell to attach a certificate and set its expiry. There is no sign-up, and nothing is saved.
By trade
Who leans on this hardest?
Trades where competence is checked at the gate by somebody who will send a team home, and where it is held per unit or per system rather than as one card.
The site modules
The rest of what happens on site.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that plan the work, record it, and hold the evidence it was done properly.
One level down
The grid records the ticket.
The grid records the ticket.
Who is competent stays your call.
Which card somebody should hold, what a contractor checks it against, and the renewals that lapse quietly.
Which CSCS card, and who actually checks itWhich card a person should be carrying, and what a main contractor checks it against.
Health and safety
The certificates that expire without anybody noticingThe renewals that lapse quietly, and the difference between knowing and being told.
Health and safety
SSIP, CHAS, Constructionline and what replaced PAS 91The accreditations a main contractor asks for, and what each one actually assesses.
Winning work
Getting on a main contractor's approved listWhat a buyer wants to see before you are allowed to price anything.
Winning work
When an HSE inspector turns up on siteWhat an inspector asks for, and how a firm looks when the records are elsewhere.
Health and safety
RAMS that hold upThe difference between a document that exists and one that survives being read.
Health and safety
Next step
Find out what expires next month.
A 30-minute live demo of the matrix, the course bookings and the e-learning, end to end.
All elevenSolved
Ask for a quote
Tell us a little about the firm.
Tell us a little about the firm.
We do the rest.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same working day. Unlimited users, so every card you track is included.