Course overview
Exeter has quietly become one of the busiest construction markets in the South West. The city centre keeps producing commercial, residential and student accommodation schemes; the trade and industrial estates at Marsh Barton and Sowton stay in near-constant use; and to the east, the growth corridor around the M5 continues to generate housing at a pace few other parts of Devon can match, with the new town at Cranbrook the most visible example. Every one of those sites needs someone competent to manage it, and on most of them the qualification that proves that competence is the same: the CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS).
Our SMSTS course for Exeter is the full five-day CITB programme, delivered as a live online class over a Zoom video link. You train in real time with an experienced construction tutor and delegates from across the UK, sit the CITB exam, and come away with the same nationally recognised SMSTS certificate you would earn in any classroom in the country. What you skip is everything that used to make the course awkward for managers in Devon: the drive to a training centre, the parking, the overnight stays, and the extra hours lost either side of each training day.
That matters more for SMSTS than for most courses, because this is a five-day commitment. For a site manager running a live project in Exeter, or covering jobs spread between the city, Exmouth, Newton Abbot and Tiverton, losing a working week to training is hard enough without adding a daily commute on top. Training online from your home or site office keeps the disruption to the five course days themselves, and nothing more. The price is £430, and eligible CITB-registered employers can claim a grant towards the cost.
Who the SMSTS course is for
SMSTS is the CITB qualification for the people who carry overall responsibility for a construction site. It sits a level above the two-day SSSTS supervisors’ course, and it is the certificate principal contractors most commonly ask to see before they will let someone run their site. The course is the right fit if you are:
- A site manager responsible for the day-to-day running of a construction site, whether that is a city-centre development in Exeter or a housing phase out in east Devon
- A project manager who needs a formal, recognised health and safety qualification to match the responsibility you already hold
- A site supervisor stepping up — if you hold SSSTS and are moving from supervising a section of works to managing a whole site, SMSTS is the natural next step
- A business owner or contractor who oversees construction work and needs to demonstrate competence to clients, principal contractors and the HSE
Around Exeter, that spread of roles is exactly what turns up on the course. The regional market mixes commercial and residential development in the city with housing, refurbishment and civils work across Devon, so delegates arrive managing very different kinds of project. Because the class is live and interactive, that mix works in your favour: the tutor draws on real situations from delegates’ own sites, and you hear how managers on other types of work handle the same legal duties you carry.
One distinction is worth making early, because the two courses are often confused. SMSTS is the five-day course for people who manage sites — planning the work, organising others, carrying the legal responsibility. SSSTS is the two-day course for people who supervise a gang, trade or section under a site manager. If you are unsure which applies to your role, call us on 0808 164 2780 and we will point you to the right one before you book.
What you’ll learn
Over the five days, the course builds a complete picture of what the law expects from a site manager and how to deliver it in practice. Rather than working through regulations in the abstract, the tutor connects each duty to the decisions a manager actually makes: planning work, briefing people, checking controls, and dealing with things when they go wrong.
In summary, the programme covers:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act and the key regulations that apply to construction, including the CDM Regulations and where the site manager sits within them
- Risk assessments and method statements — producing them, reviewing them, and making sure they reflect what actually happens on site
- Managing the main hazard areas a site manager is responsible for, from working at height and excavations to scaffolding, demolition, electrical safety and confined spaces
- Occupational health and the longer-term risks — dust, noise, vibration and wellbeing — that site managers are increasingly expected to control
- Behavioural safety and site culture: how a manager’s own standards shape the way everyone else on site behaves
A full module-by-module breakdown is listed further down this page. The point to take from the summary is that SMSTS is not a memory test on legislation — it is a management course. By the end of the week you should be able to walk onto a site in Exeter or anywhere else and know what good looks like, what the law requires of you personally, and how to run the site so both are met.
How the course runs
The course runs over five consecutive midweek days, Monday to Friday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm each day. It is delivered live online over a Zoom video link — you join the class from a laptop or desktop with a webcam and microphone, and you are with your tutor and fellow delegates in real time for the full five days.
It is worth being clear about what “live online” means here, because it is nothing like working through recorded videos at your own pace. This is a real classroom that happens to run over a video link. The tutor teaches live, asks questions, runs group discussions and exercises, and expects the same engagement you would give in a physical room. Attendance is monitored across all five days, cameras stay on, and the CITB syllabus is delivered in full. The delegates alongside you are site managers, project managers and supervisors joining from across the UK, which makes the discussion broader than a purely local classroom ever could be.
For delegates in Exeter and the surrounding towns, the practical routine is simple. Each morning you set up wherever you have a reliable connection — home, the site office, a quiet room at the yard — and log in for 8:30. Course days finish at 5:00pm, and your evening is your own rather than being spent driving back across Devon. Joining instructions and everything you need to prepare are sent when you book, and if you have ever taken a video call for work, you already know how to use the technology.
To take part you will need a good standard of spoken and written English, a reliable internet connection, and a suitable device — a laptop or desktop with a webcam and microphone is ideal. There are no formal entry qualifications, though some experience of construction sites helps you connect the material to your own work.
Assessment and the SMSTS exam
The qualification is confirmed by an end-of-course exam, taken at the close of the five days. The paper is made up of multiple-choice questions, multi-response questions and short written-answer questions, and lasts approximately 30 minutes. The pass mark is 81%.
That figure sounds demanding on paper, but the course is structured so that the exam confirms what you have already absorbed rather than ambushing you. Learning is checked as you go through the week, the tutor revisits anything the group finds difficult, and full attendance and participation across the five days is itself part of achieving the qualification. Our delegates’ results reflect that approach: Skills Training Group holds a 98.7% pass rate on SMSTS.
If you want to see the style of question before you commit, we publish a free SMSTS mock test you can take online. It is a sensible half-hour investment for anyone booking the course — particularly if it is a while since you last sat any kind of exam — and delegates from Exeter regularly tell us it took the anxiety out of the final day.
Why train online from Exeter
We are straightforward about this: there is no physical SMSTS venue in Exeter — this course is delivered live online, and that is a genuine advantage rather than a compromise.
Think about what attending a five-day classroom course used to involve for a manager based in Devon. If the nearest scheduled course was not in the city, it meant a week of long drives or a hotel. Even with a local venue it meant five days of commuting, parking and fighting traffic before the course content even started. For managers based out towards Okehampton, Honiton or Torquay, the travel overhead could easily add ten or more hours to the working week.
The live online format removes all of it, and takes nothing away from the qualification in return:
- The certificate is identical. You sit the full CITB syllabus and the same exam, and you receive the same CITB SMSTS certificate as a classroom delegate. Nothing on the certificate distinguishes online delivery, because from CITB’s point of view there is no distinction to make.
- No travel, no parking, no hotels. The course fee of £430 is the whole cost. There is no fuel across Devon, no city-centre parking, and no accommodation bill for delegates coming from further out.
- Equal access across the region. A manager in Crediton or Cullompton gets exactly the same course, the same tutor and the same interaction as someone in the centre of Exeter. Where you live in the South West stops being a factor in the quality of training you can reach.
- A national classroom. You train alongside site managers from across the UK. The regulations are the same everywhere, but hearing how managers on different kinds of project apply them adds a dimension a local-only classroom cannot.
- Less disruption for employers. A manager training from home or the site office is still contactable at the start and end of each day if something urgent comes up — not stranded at a venue an hour away.
For a five-day course, those advantages compound. Losing a working week to training is a genuine cost for any construction business around Exeter; losing a working week plus travel time, fuel and hotels is a bigger one. The online format keeps the commitment to exactly what the qualification requires and nothing more.
Certification and five-year validity
On passing the exam you receive the official CITB SMSTS certificate, recognised across the UK construction industry. It is the standard evidence of site management competence that principal contractors, clients and framework operators ask for, and it is accepted on sites in Exeter, across Devon and the South West, and anywhere else in the country your work takes you. The qualification is national — it travels with you between employers, projects and regions.
The certificate is valid for five years. Before it expires, you keep it live by completing the SMSTS refresher course — a much shorter commitment than the full five days, which updates you on changes to legislation and best practice and renews your certification for a further five years. The important word is before: let the certificate lapse and the refresher route closes, leaving the full five-day course as the only way back. Put the expiry date in your diary the day your certificate arrives, and book the refresher with a comfortable margin.
CITB grant funding
SMSTS is a grant-eligible course. If your employer is registered with CITB, the business may be able to claim a CITB grant towards the cost of the course, which brings the effective price of qualifying a manager down significantly from the £430 course fee. Grants are claimed by the employer and paid by CITB, subject to the usual registration and eligibility conditions.
For construction businesses around Exeter putting one manager or several through the course, it is always worth checking eligibility before you book. If you are unsure whether your business qualifies or how the claim works, call us on 0808 164 2780 and we will talk you through it.
How to book
Booking your SMSTS course takes a couple of minutes. Course dates run regularly throughout the year, all on the Monday-to-Friday pattern, so you can pick a week that fits around your project commitments in Exeter and beyond.
- Book online: choose your dates and reserve your place at booking.skillstg.co.uk/course/SMSTS
- Book by phone: call our team on 0808 164 2780 — useful if you are booking several delegates, checking CITB grant eligibility, or deciding between SMSTS and SSSTS
Once you are booked, we send joining instructions with everything you need for the live online class. You can also find full course details, dates and related CITB courses on our main SMSTS course page.
Frequently asked questions
Is the online SMSTS certificate accepted on construction sites in Exeter?
Yes. The live online course covers the full CITB syllabus and the same exam as any classroom course, and you receive the standard CITB SMSTS certificate, recognised across the UK construction industry. Contractors and principal contractors running sites in Exeter and across Devon ask for SMSTS, not for a particular delivery method — the certificate does not record whether you trained online or in a classroom, because the qualification is identical either way.
Do I need to travel anywhere in Exeter to attend the course?
No. There is no physical venue — the course is delivered entirely as a live online class over a Zoom video link, running five consecutive midweek days, Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm. You join from home, your site office, or anywhere in the Exeter area with a reliable internet connection and a suitable device with a webcam and microphone. There is no commute, no parking and no overnight stay at any point.
Will employers and principal contractors in the Exeter area accept the qualification?
Yes. SMSTS is the industry-standard site management qualification asked for by principal contractors and clients nationwide, and the South West is no different. Whether you are working on a city-centre scheme in Exeter, housing in the east Devon growth area, or projects further afield, the CITB SMSTS certificate is the recognised evidence of site management competence — and because it is a national qualification, it remains valid if your next project is at the other end of the country.
How much does the SMSTS course cost?
The course costs £430, which covers the full five-day live online programme and the end-of-course exam. Because there is no venue to travel to, there are no hidden extras on top — no fuel, parking or hotel costs. If your employer is CITB-registered, the business may also be able to claim a CITB grant towards the course cost, which reduces the net outlay further.
What does the SMSTS exam involve?
The exam is taken at the end of the five days and lasts approximately 30 minutes. It combines multiple-choice questions, multi-response questions and short written-answer questions, with a pass mark of 81%. The course prepares you thoroughly as the week goes on, and our SMSTS pass rate is 98.7%. If you would like to see the question style in advance, take our free online SMSTS mock test before your course starts.
What is the difference between SMSTS and SSSTS?
SMSTS is the five-day CITB course for site managers, project managers and those responsible for planning and organising the work of a whole site. SSSTS is the two-day CITB course for site supervisors, foremen and team leaders who oversee a gang or section under a site manager. If you manage a site, you need SMSTS; if you supervise part of one, SSSTS is the right course. Many delegates complete SSSTS first and progress to SMSTS when they step up into a management role.
How long does the SMSTS certificate last, and how do I renew it?
The CITB SMSTS certificate is valid for five years. To renew it you complete the SMSTS refresher course before your certificate expires, which brings you up to date and extends your qualification for a further five years. If the certificate is allowed to lapse, the refresher is no longer available and the full five-day course must be taken again — so book the refresher well ahead of your expiry date.
Ready to qualify? Reserve your place on the next SMSTS course for Exeter at booking.skillstg.co.uk/course/SMSTS, or call our team on 0808 164 2780 to check dates, arrange group bookings or ask about CITB grant funding. Five days online, £430, and a nationally recognised CITB qualification at the end of it — without leaving Exeter.
Modules breakdown
Across the five days, your tutor works through the full CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme syllabus, blending live teaching with group discussions, case studies and daily knowledge checks. Every module is taught with the site manager’s responsibilities in mind, covering the following key areas:
Health and safety legislation
- Health and Safety at Work Act fundamentals and their implications for construction
- Environmental legislation affecting construction sites
- Recent developments and new guidance in safety regulations
- Responsibilities under relevant legislation, and industry best practice beyond the legal minimum
Risk management
- Conducting thorough risk assessments and implementing the necessary control measures
- Ensuring safe working practices across different site activities
- Managing common safety issues on construction sites
- Creating systems for continual safety awareness
Leadership and communication
- Developing a positive safety culture on site
- Techniques for communicating safety protocols effectively
- Engaging the workforce in health and safety initiatives
- Managing subcontractors and supporting site supervisors in their safety responsibilities
Practical site management
- Day-to-day safety management techniques
- Responding to incidents and near misses
- Documentation and record-keeping requirements
- Site inspections, audits, toolbox talks and safety briefings
Special site hazards
- Working at height safety protocols
- Plant and equipment safety
- Excavation and groundworks safety
- Managing hazardous substances
- Electrical safety on construction sites
You attend all five training days, take part in the group activities and knowledge checks, then sit the final exam. On passing, you receive the official CITB SMSTS certificate, valid for five years, which you keep current with the two-day SMSTS Refresher Course before it expires. If you supervise rather than manage a site, the two-day SSSTS course may be the better fit – our team can help you choose.
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