NCCA accreditation also extended for another year
November 2012 - After a thorough review of National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators’ (NCCCO) certification programs and internal procedures, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has reaffirmed the accreditation of seven of NCCCO’s personnel certification programs. Furthermore, the ANSI assessing team issued two commendations to NCCCO for procedural excellence. It found no nonconformities in its weeklong review. The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) also extended its accreditations of CCO Mobile and Tower Operator programs for another year.
NCCCO earned its initial ANSI accreditation in 2007 for the CCO Mobile, Tower, and Overhead Crane Operator certification programs. To maintain its accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17024 International Standard for organizations that certify personnel, however, every year NCCCO has been required to submit a comprehensive report documenting program performance and internal procedures to ANSI. Every second year an on-site audit is required. In the years since the first accreditation was awarded, the CCO Signalperson (2010), Rigger Level I (2010), Rigger Level II (2011), and Articulating Crane Operator (2011) programs have been progressively added to NCCCO’s range of personnel certification programs and each successfully accredited.
This was the first time, however, that NCCCO and its programs had been required to be reaccredited as a whole, which required ANSI’s assessors to spend not only several days reviewing documentation and observing CCO practical exams in the field, but also a week of document review and onsite inspections of NCCCO’s offices in Fairfax, VA, and Salt Lake City, UT. “Fulfilling all of ANSI’s requirements – and getting them done right the first time – involved hundreds of manhours among all NCCCO and IAI staff over more than two months,” said Shawna Parham, NCCCO Program Manager – Accreditation.
Two Commendations Awarded
ANSI also awarded NCCCO two commendations for its efforts to provide and maintain fair, valid, and effective personnel certifications.
In the first, ANSI commended NCCCO on its sophisticated proactive surveillance process that solicits formal input from certificants and employers about the value and impact of certification on certificants, employers, the crane industry, and public safety. NCCCO uses this information to recognize certified operators and employers that embrace CCO certification. The assessors noted that NCCCO also proactively seeks input from industry and public sources concerning any issues regarding the performance or conduct of any operators it has certified, and it acts on that information through its comprehensive complaint review process.
The ANSI assessors also commended NCCCO on its efforts to ensure the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of its Practical Examiners. NCCCO’s Practical Examiner training includes a rigorous review process in which all examiners observe the same tasks and provide their ratings. These ratings are then compared to the examiner training and IRR measures are calculated, efforts that go beyond what the assessors normally see in examiner training.
In accordance with its operating procedures, ANSI had mobilized a new team of assessors for this comprehensive audit, and the assessors were highly complimentary of the quality of the application they received from NCCCO and IAI, and they were very impressed by all the staff they had the opportunity to meet in person.
“It’s a great tribute to the quality that permeates all aspects of our activities that the assessors’ commendations reflect excellence in elements as diverse as psychometric integrity, marketing and outreach, and the investigative process we apply to matters of ethics and discipline,” noted NCCCO Executive Director, Graham Brent.“This kind of third-party recognition of all our individual and collective efforts can make us proud to be a part of a program that is truly fulfilling its mission of improving safety on construction sites nationwide, and thereby protecting the construction workforce and the general public from the risk of accidents that might lead to death or serious injury.”
CCO certification programs accredited by ANSI include:
- Mobile Crane Operator
- Tower Crane Operator
- Overhead Crane Operator
- Articulating Crane Operator
- Signalperson
- Rigger Level I
- Rigger Level II
In addition, NCCCO is in the application process for accreditation of its Crane Inspector and Digger Derrick Operator certification programs.