City and Guilds of London Institute · RQF Level 3
City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Blacksmithing
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 3
- Guided learning1,994 hours
- Units in this qualification29
Awarded by City and Guilds of London Institute · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units City and Guilds of London Institute registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
2D Computer Aided DesignReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Use associated IT, CAD hardware and operating systems
- Use basic file management techniques and maintain health and safety requirements
- Use and identify key components of the software relating to the 2D drawing environment
- Use a range of viewing commands and set up the drawing space
- Use drawing commands to produce shapes
- Use the CAD software’s co-ordinate system to aid accurate drawing
- Use hatch, text and simple dimensioning routines
- Use basic editing commands and produce simple hard copies
Blacksmithing construction skillsReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand historical and contemporary methods of metal production
- Understand historical and contemporary construction details
- Understand the production and use of specialised tooling for historical and contemporary methods of construction
- Understand the use of common finishing techniques in forged metalwork
- Produce drawings and specifications
- Produce complex blacksmith constructions and motifs using a combination of metals
- Specify and apply finishes to metalwork
Blacksmithing forge practices using large forge machineryReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the use and maintenance of large forge tooling
- Make and maintain large forge tooling
Blacksmithing forge practices using small forge assembliesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the processes and tooling used to set up for forge production
- Understand constructional techniques for small assemblies
- Carry out constructional techniques for small assemblies
Blacksmithing processesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to control quality in general forgework and toolmaking
- Understand the artistic and architectural periods of forged metalwork
- Produce hand tooling
- Use production processes for making decorative elements
Blacksmithing work combining other materials and processesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand properties of metallic and non- metallic materials used in blacksmithing
- Understand the potential effects of combining different materials in blacksmithing work
- Produce products using a combination of different materials with forged metalwork
Cleaning, Preparing and Protecting Heritage Metalwork in the WorkplaceReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the given information relating to the work and resources when cleaning, preparing and protecting heritage metalwork.
- Comply with relevant legislation and official guidance when cleaning, preparing and protecting heritage metalwork.
- Maintain safe working practices when cleaning, preparing and protecting heritage metalwork.
- Select the required quantity and quality of resources for the methods of work to clean, prepare and protect heritage metalwork.
- Minimise the risk of damage to the work and surrounding area when cleaning, preparing and protecting heritage metalwork.
Communicate effectively in craftReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance of clear communication in craft
- Communicate effectively with different audiences
- Respond effectively to an audience
- Assess the appropriateness of own communication
Cutting and shaping materials using thermal cutting equipmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Cut and shape materials using thermal cutting equipment
- Cut and shape materials using thermal cutting equipment
Design processes for blacksmithing workReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the design cycle
- Understand the importance and use of research in the design process
- Generate and develop design ideas to brief from research information
- Produce technical and freehand drawings
Fabricating sheet metalworkReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare equipment and tools for sheet metal cutting
- Use equipment, tools and materials for sheet metal forming
- Produce fabrications using sheet metalwork assembly techniques.
Fabricating thick plate, bar and sectionsReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare equipment, tools and materials for cutting of thick plate, bar and rolled sections
- Use equipment and tools for thick plate, bar and rolled sections
- Produce fabrications using thick plate and rolled bar sections joining techniques.
Finishing surfaces by applying coatings or coveringsReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Finish surfaces by applying coatings or coverings
- Finish surfaces by applying coatings or coverings
Forging techniques for blacksmithing and metalworkingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to work to blacksmithing specifications
- Understand the effects of heating in blacksmithing processes
- Understand working with common blacksmithing techniques
- Carry out common forging, forming and cutting techniques
- Make and maintain common forging tools
- Use joining techniques to produce basic constructions, components or tools
Heating, Welding or Soldering Heritage Metalwork in the WorkplaceReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the given information relating to the work and resources when heating, welding or soldering heritage metalwork.
- Comply with relevant legislation and official guidance when heating, welding or soldering heritage metalwork.
- Maintain safe working practices when heating, welding or soldering heritage metalwork.
- Select the required quantity and quality of resources for the methods of work to heat, weld or solder heritage metalwork.
- Minimise the risk of damage to the work and surrounding area when heating, welding or soldering heritage metalwork.
- Complete the work within t
Historical, decorative and sheet metal blacksmithing techniquesReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the techniques of blacksmithing conservation
- Understand the techniques used in decorative sheet work
- Understand the techniques of traditional forgework decorative
- Perform the techniques of decorative blacksmithing work
- Produce decorative tooling
Introduction to ethics and professional judgement for cultural heritage conservationReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand ethical and legal obligations in relation to cultural heritage conservation
- Apply ethical principles in their work
Large scale blacksmithing construction and installationReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand site evaluation and mapping
- Understand costings and record keeping for workshop construction and site work
- Understand the reasons for using site fixing operations
- Survey a given site to meet objectives
- Perform site installation operations
- Perform workshop construction methods
Obtain feedback from others to inform work and work practice in craftReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the influence of feedback on progress at work
- Use feedback from others on craft practice
- Monitor own craft practice
Preparing and using manual TIG or plasma-arc welding equipmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare and use manual TIG or plasma-arc welding equipment
- Prepare and use manual TIG or plasma-arc welding equipment
Preparing and using manual metal arc welding equipmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare and use manual metal arc welding equipment
- Prepare and use manual metal arc welding equipment
Preparing and using manual oxy/fuel gas welding equipmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare and use manual gas welding equipment
- Prepare and use manual gas welding equipment
Preparing and using semi-automatic MIG, MAG and flux cored arc welding equipmentReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare and use manual MIG, MAG and other continuous wire welding equipment
- Prepare and use manual MIG, MAG and other continuous wire welding equipment
Repairing, Restoring, Conserving, Replacing or Maintaining Forged Heritage Metalwork in the WorkplaceReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the given information relating to the work and resources when repairing, restoring, conserving, replacing or maintaining forged heritage metalwork.
- Comply with relevant legislation and official guidance when repairing, restoring, conserving, replacing or maintaining forged heritage metalwork.
- Maintain safe working practices when repairing, restoring, conserving, replacing or maintaining forged heritage metalwork.
- Select the required quantity and quality of resources for the methods of work to repair, restore, conserve, replace or maintain forged heritage metalwork.
- Mi
Thermal Cutting Metal for Heritage Work in the WorkplaceReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the given information relating to the work and resources when thermal cutting metal for heritage work.
- Comply with relevant legislation and official guidance when thermal cutting metal for heritage work.
- Maintain safe working practices when thermal cutting metal for heritage work.
- Select the required quantity and quality of resources for the methods of work to thermal cut metal for heritage work.
- Minimise the risk of damage to the work and surrounding area when thermal cutting metal for heritage work.
- Complete the work within the allocated time when thermal cutting m
Use hand tools to shape components by material removal in blacksmithingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to interpret technical drawings, instructions and specifications
- Understand the use and maintenance of hand cutting tools
- Understand the use and maintenance of powered tools
- Understand the use of engineering measuring tools and marking out equipment
- Understand methods of material removal and shaping using hand tools
- Use hand tools to perform blacksmithing cutting and shaping operations
Using machine tools to shape components by material removal in blacksmithingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand roles and responsibilities when operating machine tools
- Carry out blacksmithing machining operations
- Understand the set up and operation of blacksmithing machine tools
Working on Conservation and Restoration Projects in the WorkplaceReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the given information relating to the work and resources when working on conservation and restoration projects.
- Comply with relevant legislation and official guidance when working on conservation and restoration projects.
- Maintain safe and healthy working practices when working on conservation and restoration projects.
- Select the required quantity and quality of resources for the methods of work to work on conservation and restoration projects.
- Minimise the risk of damage to the work and surrounding area when working on conservation and restoration projects.
- Complete
Working safely in blacksmithingReal unit · City and Guilds of London Institute
What you'll be able to do
- Understand roles and responsibilities when working safely in blacksmithing
- Understand risks associated with blacksmithing work
- Work safely when carrying out blacksmithing activities
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 3 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Apply historical, decorative and repoussé blacksmithing techniques
- Apply large scale blacksmithing construction and installation skills
- Back Gouge Welded Units in Blacksmithing
- Carry out blacksmithing work with other materials and processes
- Clean, prepare and protect heritage metalwork
- Demonstrate good forge practice
- Dismantle and fix heritage metalwork
- Heat, weld or solder heritage metalwork
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your own work
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Blacksmithing
29 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by City and Guilds of London Institute.
- 2D Computer Aided Design
- Blacksmithing construction skills
- Blacksmithing forge practices using large forge machinery
- Blacksmithing forge practices using small forge assemblies
- Blacksmithing processes
- Blacksmithing work combining other materials and processes
and 23 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.