Certification is no longer a luxury or added feature in today's business world. In nearly every corner of business, certification is the means of identifying commitment to employee, customer and quality and the construction industry is no exception. Certification programs establish standards for education and ensure commitment to quality through rigorous evaluation and verification processes. For individuals, certification goes beyond training by providing tangible measurement to knowledge and experience. For companies, certification plays an important role in developing and maintaining a qualified workforce and commitment to benchmarks for quality, safety and business performance.
The sucess of these tilt-up certification programs give strong evidence to both the value and importance of certification. The ACI/TCA Tilt-Up Supervisor and Technician Certification Program established in 1980 has continued to evolve the state-of-the-art through a committed workforce and experienced professionals. The newer TCA Tilt-Up Company Certification program continues to challenge the industry to advance to a higher level of commitment and a greater statement of performance.
The goal of the TCA Company Certification Program is to provide owners, specifiers, and designers with a method for assuring the experience, quality and performance of tilt-up concrete contractors.
The program will certify that companies who manage the tilt-up construction process have met the criteria established for evaluation. The criteria includes analysis of company policies, procedures, and ability to consistently deliver a quality product and that they hire trained, certified and qualified personnel in all aspects of the tilt-up construction process.
The emphasis of the program is on quality control and quality assurance but safety, experience, current activity, adherence to specifications, and owner verification of performance are part of the evaluation criteria. An on-site review of company documents is performed to confirm and verify the information presented. Companies experience, performance, and adherence to the programs requirements are reviewed annually.
There are two levels of certification: General Tilt-Up Contractor and Architectural Tilt-Up Contractor. Details of the program are enumerated in the Program Policy Manual.
The Tilt-Up Supervisor and Technician Certification Program is a collaborative effort between the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA). There are two types of individual tilt-up certifications available through this program.
Tilt-Up Supervisor - A person who has demonstrated proficiency in and an understanding of overall on-site administrative and technical management for producing tilt-up projects by passing the ACI written examination and meeting work experience requirements.
Tilt-Up Technician - A person who has an understanding of overall on-site administrative and technical management for producing tilt-up projects by passing the ACI written examination, but who lacks sufficient work experience to qualify as a tilt-up supervisor.
The Construction of Tilt-Up, published by the Tilt-Up Concrete Association, is the official study guide for the ACI/TCA Tilt-Up Supervisor and Technician Certification Program.
The two-hour, closed book exam is conducted at various events throughout the year including the Tilt-Up Convention and Expo, World of Concrete and ACI Convention. Private exams and preparatory seminars are available through the TCA for companies wanting the added convenience of testing in their office. Contact jbaty@tilt-up.org or call TCA at (319) 895-6911 to learn more about this opportunity.
Those seeking recertification have the option of doing so through the accumulation of continuing education hours. For a listing of per-approved courses at World of Concrete and the Tilt-Up Convention and Expo, download the Recertification - Education Verification Form from concrete.org.