In This Podcast:

Valerie Briggs, director of marketing and business development for North American Technician Excellence (NATE) discusses what’s new with the organization and explains why NATE testing and certification is so vital to the HVACR industry.

Q: What’s new at NATE?

A: We have a lot of new and exciting things happening. I’m new at NATE, and we have a new director of certification, Denny Smith, who has been with us for about a year now. He is working to finalize a revised core examination that will combine the individual service and core exam into one single, 75-question exam. Our hydronics and refrigeration specialty exams are being updated due to changes in the industry, and soon we’ll offer the core exam, a/c service, heat pump service, and gas furnace specialty exams in Spanish.

Q: Eighty-five percent of employers are finding it difficult, or very difficult, to find workers with entry-level skills. What is being done to close that gap?

A: We find the results of that survey to demonstrate a great opportunity. NATE will soon begin administering the ICE exam and will encourage more industry professionals and trade associations to get involved. This represents a prime opportunity. We plan to increase our outreach to help connect the dots and direct technicians to find the training they need to seek and maintain NATE certification, thus making them more marketable to employers.

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Publication date: 6/17/2013 

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