CO-person certificate: the professional-competence proof for gas work

Alongside the company certificate (BRL 6000-25 or BRL K25000), the Gasketelwet also has a requirement at the personal level: the technician who actually carries out the work must be demonstrably professionally competent. That proof is called the Bewijs van Vakmanschap CO, in practice often referred to for short as the "CO-person certificate". This article explains what it is, who needs it and how it relates to the company certificate.

What is the Bewijs van Vakmanschap CO?

The Bewijs van Vakmanschap CO demonstrates that an individual technician has been trained and assessed to work safely on gas-fired combustion installations, flue gas discharge provisions and combustion air supplies. It is the personal-level equivalent of what the F-gas personal certificate (BRL 200) is for refrigerant work: a company may only work under its BRL 6000-25 or BRL K25000 certificate if the technicians carrying out the work are themselves also authorised.

Without this proof a technician may not carry out work that falls under article 6.45(1) of the Besluit bouwwerken leefomgeving (successor to the former article 1.35 of the Bouwbesluit 2012) — not even if the company itself is certified.

Who needs it?

Every technician who independently carries out work on:

• gas-fired combustion appliances (central heating boilers, gas water heaters, gas fires, air heaters),
• the flue gas discharge of those appliances,
• or the combustion air supply.

For refrigeration and heat pump companies this becomes relevant as soon as you also maintain hybrid installations. A hybrid heat pump with a gas boiler as peak provision requires a technician who is authorised for both the refrigerant part (F-gas personal certificate) and the gas combustion part (CO-person), or two technicians each with their own authorisation on the work order.

How do you obtain the certificate?

In broad outline, a technician goes through this process:

• Choose a recognised exam institute. As with BRL 200, the assessment runs via an institute recognised by the certifying body (Kiwa or InstallQ).
• Follow the necessary training or instruction, tailored to the type of work (installation, maintenance, fault repair).
• Take the exam — a combination of theory on combustion safety, CO risks and flue gas discharge, and a practical assessment.
• Receive the Bewijs van Vakmanschap CO after passing the assessment, registered with the certifying body.
• Record the certificate number and validity date in your own administration, so that at an audit you can immediately demonstrate which technician was authorised when.

Period of validity and recertification

Certificates within this scheme are valid for a limited period; after that, recertification is needed to keep the proof valid. The exact period of validity and whether there are interim check moments differs per certifying body — ask Kiwa or InstallQ about this when applying for the certificate, and plan a re-assessment well before the expiry date so you don't leave a gap in your authorisation.

What do you need to record?

For every technician with a CO-person certificate you record at minimum: the certificate number, the issuing body, the date obtained and the validity date. For every work order or CO inspection that technician carries out, that link should be traceable — not something you can only reconstruct afterwards from a separate Excel file, but recorded at the moment the work is carried out. That is exactly the point an auditor dives into first: does the technician's authorisation match the date of the work?

Person vs company: how does this fit together?

Two separate documents, each with its own purpose:

• The Bewijs van Vakmanschap CO covers the individual technician.
• The BRL 6000-25 or BRL K25000 certificate covers the company — and a company only gets that certificate if it employs enough professionally competent technicians.

The same logic applies for F-gases: see Applying for an F-gas certificate for how the company and personal certificate relate there. The pattern — the company certifies the process, the technician certifies the professional competence — recurs throughout the Dutch installation sector.

How Koldwerk safeguards this

In Koldwerk you register the CO-person certificate per technician, alongside other certificates such as BRL 200 F-gases, STEK Monteur and VCA. The CO inspections module checks this automatically: a CO inspection can only be started with a technician who holds a valid CO-person certificate at that moment. If that certificate has expired or been withdrawn, the system blocks the inspection with a clear error message — instead of you only discovering this at the next audit.

Further reading

• What is the Gasketelwet? — the legal framework and the company certificate
• CO inspection: checklist and what needs to be on your work order
• BRL 200: F-gas personal certificate explained — the equivalent for refrigerant work
• Applying for an F-gas certificate: how it works

Disclaimer: this article is an explanation in plain language. The exact exam requirements, training requirements and periods of validity are set by the certifying body — consult Kiwa (opent in nieuw tabblad) or InstallQ (opent in nieuw tabblad) for the current conditions. Not legal advice.