The latest broadcast of RVN Television's Morning Coffee Expert Series examines the importance of certifications for fire prevention, wildfire preparedness, electrical safety, hazardous materials, community risk reduction, and public safety.
Sponsored by Workcred, an ANSI affiliate, the Expert Series details workforce and credentialing issues, including research findings from Workcred and highlights of certifications for careers in project management, medical laboratories, cleaning and restoration, construction, supply chain management, IT, and more.
The episode features expert Dan Pickel, director of certification and accreditation at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), who talks about consensus codes and standards that are intended to minimize fire risks. NFPA codes and standards cover everything from building electrical safety to emergency response and wildfire management. Pickel explains how NFPA also offers extensive training and certification programs, which validate worker skills and help advance their careers.
“Each certification that NFPA develops is based on an actual job role. We do something called job task analysis: we look at a job, and we determine the knowledge, the skills, the competencies, and behavioral tasks that someone needs to accomplish to be proficient in a role. We build that all out and then, with subject matter experts, have it validated through the industry and build the [certification] exam based on that job role. So at the end of the process, we can validate someone’s skills through a certification exam,” he explained, noting that certifications have a recertification timeline of every three years.
As workers earn certifications through rigorous examination, they have to continue to show a certification body like NFPA that they are working toward improving their knowledge and an advanced understanding of the concepts that relate to that job task analysis, Pickel added.
Watch the video episode: “Workcred Expert Series: Fire, Electrical, and Related Hazards”
Access additional broadcasts on RVN Television’s Morning Coffee.