Talking Certification

At the AHRI spring meeting last week, I heard Dave Pannier, interim president of North American Technician Excellence (NATE), say that certification through this program has reached a plateau. He wants to know why more technicians aren’t choosing to certify or recertify through NATE.

I want to know why, too. Are there any techs out there who can tell me your reasons for not bothering with certification? Post your comments - I want to hear your side because, frankly, I’ve heard stats that make it sound like it’s stupid not to get certified.

Pannier rattled off a few of these numbers at the meeting. The ones that stuck out to me were that NATE-certified techs have higher pay rates and fewer callbacks than non-certified techs.

So can you tell me what your perspective is as a tech? Why have you decided not to be certified? Or, if were previously certified, why didn’t you want to renew after your five years were up?

I know that NATE is planning to create an industry survey to find answers to these questions, but let’s get the discussion started here first.