Free training matrix template for construction (Excel)

A free Excel training matrix for UK construction firms: every operative's cards and tickets with their expiry dates, and a status that shows what has expired and what runs out in the next 30 or 90 days. No sign-up and no email address.

Download the template (Excel, 39 KB)

What is in it

• Register. One row for each card, ticket or course: name, trade, card, expiry date and card number. Status and days left work themselves out from today's date, coloured red for expired, amber for the next 30 days and yellow for the next 90.
• Matrix. The same dates as a grid, one person per row and one card per column, the way a site manager reads it at a glance.
• Card rules. How long each common card lasts and when it can be renewed, with a link to the scheme's own page.
• Lists. The trades and the cards behind the drop-down lists: CSCS, CPCS, NPORS and CCDO cards, asbestos training, face fit tests and medicals. Add your own courses at the bottom.

The Register with example rows, as it showed them on 3 October 2026:

What a training matrix should hold

The point of the matrix is to answer two questions on any morning: can this person do this job today, and what runs out before the next job starts. For that it needs, for every person:

1. Each card and ticket they hold, by its full name, because a CPCS red and a CPCS blue card are not the same thing at the gate.
2. The expiry date printed on the card, not one worked out from the issue date. Some cards come in more than one length.
3. The card number, so a card can be checked on the scheme's online checker.
4. Training that has no card: asbestos refresher training, face fit tests and the medicals that some work needs.
5. Where the proof is kept, if a client or a principal contractor asks to see it. The Notes column is there for that.

How long the common cards last

Checked on each scheme's own page on 28 September 2026. Use the date printed on the card, and follow the link before deciding anything that matters: schemes change their rules.

• CSCS Labourer (first card): valid 2 years. CSCS cards renew from 6 months before expiry. CSCS
• CSCS Skilled Worker (blue), Advanced Craft (gold), Supervisory and Manager: valid 5 years, renewable from 6 months before to 12 months after the expiry date. CSCS
• CSCS Experienced Worker (red): valid 1 year, not renewable. CSCS
• CPCS red (Trained Operator): valid 2 years with no renewal: a 12 month extension while the NVQ is completed, or a retest. CPCS
• CPCS blue (Competent Operator): valid 5 years; renewal can be applied for from 3 months before expiry. CPCS
• NPORS/CSCS red (Trained Operator): valid 2 years from the application; one 12 month extension is possible. NPORS
• NPORS/CSCS blue (Competent Operator): valid 5 years from the application. NPORS
• CCDO Labourer (green): valid 2 years since February 2025 (it was 5); renewable. NDTG
• Asbestos refresher training: every year, or sooner after a change (L143, paragraph 266). HSE

The Card rules sheet in the template covers all 29 cards and courses in the list. What happens when a card runs out, what a renewal needs and how to check a card are in CSCS card expiry.

Training matrix or skills matrix?

A training matrix records which cards, tickets and courses each person holds and when they expire. A skills matrix records what each person can do and how well, often on a scale of 1 to 4. They are often confused, and a firm may want both. This template is a training matrix; to track skills as well, add a column for a skill level on the Register.

When the spreadsheet stops being enough

A spreadsheet only warns the person who opens it. Site Ready, the compliance register I built on Microsoft 365, sends the warning before anything expires and a summary to the director every Monday. The first five columns of this template are in the order Site Ready imports them, so a firm that keeps this sheet has its register ready. How it works: Site Ready.

Questions