The Canadian Construction Association’s (CCA) gold seal committee is revitalizing the national certification program for project managers, superintendents and estimators.
Certification
TORONTO
The Canadian Construction Association’s (CCA) gold seal committee is revitalizing the national certification program for project managers, superintendents and estimators.
Andrew Shepherd, the CCA’s Gold Seal program manager, said participants in a recent strategic planning session agreed steps need to be taken to boost participation in the program.
It is estimated between five and 10 per cent of eligible individuals have achieved certification. Certification is based on a candidate’s education, experience and ability to satisfy program standards.
“We are looking at changing some of the elements, with the objective of doubling the participation rate in the next three to five years,” Shepherd told Daily Commercial News.
Some 5,600 certificates have been issued since the program was launched in 1993. However, participation has been static in the past five years, with some 200 to 300 managers being certified annually.
Shepherd said session participants, who included chief operating officers of construction associations from Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, agreed that the program may have spread itself too thin in adding new components and streams.
There was consensus the program needs consolidation, a renewed focus on product quality and the addition of the professional Gold Seal certificate designation to complete the core certification path, he said.
Participants also agreed the program’s future success hinges in part on forging “much stronger” relationships with local and provincial construction associations across Canada.
“One of the conclusions was that we may have been a bit isolated here in Ottawa, doing marketing and planning from the top down from the national perspective and that the program probably needs to be driven from the bottom up,” Shepherd said.
The Gold Seal committee has invited Clive Thurston, president of the Ontario General Contractors Association, and Debra Hicks, president of the Southern Interior Construction Association, to join its ranks.
Shepherd said an invitation will be extended to the chief operating officer of a Quebec association as well.
Thurston, who participated in the strategic planning session, said OGCA, has been “a committed and ardent” supporter of the Gold Seal program. But the program needs to be enhanced and better marketed, he said.
“In Ontario, which leads the nation in Gold Seal applicants and certificate-holders, the program has had its ups and downs,” he said, noting that concern has been expressed in some quarters over course content and quality of exams.
“More importantly, (OGCA) members wanted their certificates to have more weight,” Thurston said. “As the program is voluntary, there is nothing to compel employers or employees to obtain certificates.”
In the coming months, Thurston said the CCA committee is expected to address such issues as the status of the exam process, making Gold Seal more relevant to owners and instituting a continuing professional development program.
OGCA is looking at setting up a provincial committee to assist the CCA in this endeavour, Thurston said. His association last year launched a Gold Seal-certified course on building code compliance for construction supervisors.
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