The Glass Industry is one of the world’s oldest, steeped in history and dating back to 4000BC.

The current glass industry is one that surrounds us and covers the manufacture of flat glass, container glass, domestic glass, decorative glass, automotive and specialist areas such as Fire Resistant Glazing. Glass also needs installing, in buildings as part of windows fabricated in production facilities, and in vehicles.

GQA Qualifications are the Glass Industries Specialist Awarding Body with qualifications covering a variety of roles within the glass and related industries.

Construction as a sector touches all aspects of society from private and social housing, commercial and industrial buildings, road building as well as public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

The sector is one of the most important areas affecting the national economy and is made up of “traditional” occupations such as plastering, bricklaying and joinery but is also at the fore front of new exciting cutting edge technologies which support the green agenda.

Print is believed to be the UK’s fifth largest manufacturing industry and provides work for almost 150,000 employees. It is widely believed that printing originated in China, firstly printing onto textiles and later onto paper.

The past 20 years have seen enormous changes with the introduction of digital technology as with many industries, impacting on the wide range of print production processes in use and contributing to the changes in the range jobs print now has to offer.

Working with Proskills and industry experts, GQA developed the current range of qualifications available to the Print industry, offering the full range of qualifications available, at Levels 2, 3 and 4.