I'm in the process of NABCEP re-certification and I have two complaints about
their process:
1. In the last year, NABCEP added a requirement for 3 customer surveys as
documentation of projects completed. This was released just after I had left a
job doing installations to do consulting overseas over the winter. I had all
the permitting documentation, but having just returned to the US this spring,
now I have to go back and try to get surveys filled out from projects that were
done sometime ago. It has, for various reasons, has been a real hassle.
I appreciate that NABCEP wants some customer feedback on NABCEP installers, and
it would have been no problem to do this had it been an expectation from the
beginning. However I feel that they changed the rules of the game midway
through, and that's not fair. The moment you get certified, the
re-certification process should be fixed until the next round.
2. There are three categories of continuing education credits. There has been
no indication from the course-offerers or from NABCEP about how these courses
fulfill the categories. I mostly took classes from inverter manufacturers that
specifically list the number of NABCEP credits the class is worth -- so there
clearly was some kind specific NABCEP accreditation involved. The onus
shouldn't be on me to guess which requirements class X fulfills, especially
when NABCEP has been involved in determining the number of credits it is worth
(as opposed to, say, taking an OSHA course that is outside the PV industry),
and when I've paid for these classes partly towards maintaining my NABCEP
certification.
If NABCEP is going to have specific guidelines about such things, following the
guidelines shouldn't be such a guessing game.
Jeffrey Quackenbush.
________________________________
From: Andrew Truitt <[email protected]>
To: RE-wrenches <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] NABCEP
Wrenches - I'd like to address some of the aforementioned concerns about
NABCEP. I do not claim to present the official NABCEP "company line", but I
have been a certificant since 2007, have been involved with a
few programmatic committees, and currently sit on the board of directors.
* I certainly sympathize with Dana's frustration with having to drive a
full day to get to a testing center. There are many others in a similar
situation and it is one of the complaints about NABCEP that I hear most often
(along with exam frequency). Unfortunately NABCEP is still a very small
certification body relative to trade licensing and, as a voluntary
certification, we just don't have the resources that states do.
* Allan is correct about the processes the Exam Committees have to
undergo in order to follow defensible psychometric principles and maintain
NABCEP's ANSI accreditation.
* What additional resources would people like to use at the exam? I
would be happy to take suggestions to the Board.
* I think most certificants would agree that there would be a value in
multiple, specialized NABCEP PV certifications. If fact there has been
numerous internal discussions about exactly that and I think the next
certification that NABCEP develops will fall into this category. However,
certification development takes time and money, and some of the programs that
NABCEP has developed have not received the interest that was anticipated, so we
need to perform our due diligence before committing the sizable resources that
it takes to create a new certification. As the PV Installer certification
stands now, it is intended to test a broad variety of knowledge, largely
because historically companies were smaller and employees were more likely to
be generalists. The industry has obviously grown very rapidly with one result
being increased specialization and NABCEP does intend to keep up with this
trend. With all that in mind NABCEP welcomes targeted
donations for developing new credentials.
* Certification certainly is a business, though I think that its worth
noting that NABCEP was created by installers who were concerned with the
workmanship of RE system installations and didn't want to see a repeat of what
happened to the solar water heating industry in the '70s. Since its inception
NABCEP has been a volunteer-driven non-profit entity, guided by some of the
most knowledgeable and dedicated people in the industry (many of whom are on
this list-serve).
* We are well aware of the fact that NABCEP certs often get "promoted
off the roof" and find themselves in design, sales or managerial rolls.
Obviously this reflects well on NABCEP certificants, but it is a problem for a
program that requires ongoing field work for re-certification. This is yet
another challenge that we hope to address with future, more specialized
certifications. Note that it takes somewhere between 12 and 18 months to
properly develop a credentialing program, and NABCEP has been quite busy over
the years responding to market demands for Entry Level, Technical Sales, Small
Wind, and now Company Accreditation. We know that the industry is changing and
we need to change with it, so keep the suggestions coming!
I think everyone I've ever met has had some idea about how NABCEP could be
better, and often times they are right. Unfortunately NABCEP operates under
the real-world constraints of budgets, fund raising, volunteer availability,
consensus building, accreditation requirements, etc... In the end I think it
is hard to argue that NABCEP has not benefited our industry. NYSERDA did a
study and found that systems that were installed by NABCEP Certified PV
Installers had less issues at inspection than those built by non-NABCEP
installers. As someone who cares deeply about installation quality and safety,
this tells me that NABCEP does provide value and fills a needed roll in our
industry.
For a brighter energy future,
Andrew Truitt
NABCEP Certified PV Installer™ (ID# 032407-66)
Principal
Truitt Renewable Energy Consulting
(202) 486-7507
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-truitt/8/622/713
"Don't get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It's just that I prefer fusion to
fission. And it just so happens that there's an enormous fusion reactor safely
banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in
just about 8 minutes. And it's wireless!"
~William McDonough
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 5:56 PM, Chris Mason <[email protected]>
wrote:
One of the issues I have with the NABCEP certification is the title. When I
look at the subject matter, comparing the scope to other similar
certifications, I feel "installer" is not really accurate. I have a couple of
workers that install PV systems with me, and they are able to get the job done.
They are what I would call installers. They don't work with the customer to
design the right solution and solve problems, lay out the best approach and
develop the right bill of materials.
>
>
>The skills that the NABCEP PV certification Job Task Analysis requires is
>more of a systems designer. An installer does not need trigonometry,
>electrical theory and mechanical design to that extent.
>
>
>In other disciplines, anyone with the depth of knowledge the NACBEP requires
>would be a systems designer and project manager. The title "Installer" does
>not properly convey this knowledge and skill set, and does not give the
>customer an accurate representation of the role of the professional.
>
>
>--
>Chris Mason
>President, Comet Systems Ltd
>NABCEP Certified PV installer 092411-103
>
>
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