VCA (Veiligheid, Gezondheid en Milieu Checklist Aannemers) is a certification scheme that lets clients verify how a contractor organises safety, health and environment. It is a contractual requirement of clients, not a law.
The letters, and who runs the scheme
The law is the Arbowet in the Netherlands and the Welzijnswet plus the Codex in Belgium. VCA is the instrument clients use to check whether you comply with those. In the Netherlands the scheme is managed by SSVV. In Belgium it is BeSaCC-VCA vzw, with executive management through vzw Contractor Safety Management.
One confusion is worth clearing immediately: BeSaCC is not a synonym for VCA. It is a separate, lighter Belgian system aimed at limited risks. A client asking for VCA is not asking for BeSaCC, and the reverse is equally true.
Three personal diplomas, all ten years
B-VCA (Basisveiligheid) is for operational staff. VOL-VCA is for operational supervisors. VIL-VCU is for intercedenten and supervisors at temp agencies. All three are valid for ten years. After that, a full re-examination is required, not a refresher course.
Company certification, and the version that changed in 2026
Company levels are VCA*, VCA**, VCA Petrochemie (VCA-P), and VCU for temp organisations. Since 1 July 2026, company certification runs against VCA 2026/6.1, which replaced 2017/6.0. Personal diplomas are unaffected by that change. A large part of the guidance still circulating online describes the previous version, so it is worth checking which scheme version a supplier or trainer is actually working to.
The diploma is one question, the instruction is another
Chapter 3 of the checklist, "Opleiding, voorlichting en instructie", contains separate must questions. Questions 3.2 and 3.3 cover valid B-VCA for operational staff and valid VOL-VCA for operational supervisors. Questions 3.5 and 3.6 cover something else entirely: a company VGM information and instruction programme including an onthaal for new and redeployed staff, and instruction on the internal rules and procedures at the client's site, given before work begins on that location, demonstrable, with attendance lists.
Take a Belgian maintenance crew arriving at a chemical site on a Monday. Every technician holds a valid B-VCA and the supervisor holds VOL-VCA. Nothing in the folder shows that this crew received this site's permit rules, alarm signals and restricted zones before passing the gate. The diplomas satisfy 3.2 and 3.3. The auditor still writes a deviation on 3.5 and 3.6.
Why this distinction decides your audit
That the scheme splits diplomas from instruction is the scheme itself saying a diploma is not enough. The work of holding a certificate is therefore mostly the work of proving that site-specific instruction happened, per person, per location, before the job started. Our guide on VCA safety training across multiple sites walks through how to organise that when the crews move weekly.
Bring the client site rules you struggle to distribute to a demo, and we will build the first module from them.