President's Memo
July 2007
ACI Certification-A Boon to the Industry
by David Darwin
If you have ever seen concrete rejected because the slump test was performed improperly, you may have some idea of how important ACI Certification programs have become to the concrete industry. For many years, concrete professionals were frustrated by incidents like the one just cited, but that picture started changing when the first certifications for ACI Field Testing Technician-Grade I were issued in 1983. Today, we can look back and see the overwhelmingly positive impact that ACI Certification programs have had on the industry.
ACI currently offers 14 certification programs that are designed to ensure that testing, inspection, and construction techniques are performed correctly. I feel so strongly about the programs that I have incorporated certification testing in my undergraduate materials course at the University of Kansas, where all of my students are required to pass the performance examination for ACI Field Testing Technician-Grade I to obtain a grade in the course (typically, more than half the class will choose to pay the fee and take the written examination to become fully certified). As I explain to my students, I do this not because they will be testing concrete for the rest of their lives-most won't. Rather, I want them to know that the tests can be done exactly right, so that they, in turn, can expect the same when they get out in practice. The way to accomplish this goal is to require that ACI-certified technicians perform the tests.
Both the interest in and impact of the program can be measured, at least partially, in the numbers involved. To date, nearly 304,000 ACI certification exams have been administered, resulting in over 229,000 certifications. As I write this, ACI has over 81,000 active certifications, with the vast majority, nearly 61,000, being held by ACI Concrete Field Testing Technicians-Grade I. Other certification programs include Canadian Standards Association (CSA)-based Concrete Field Testing Technicians-Grade I (for Canada only), Concrete Flatwork Finisher/Technician, Concrete Strength Testing Technician, Concrete Laboratory Testing Technician-Grades I and II, Field Aggregate Testing Technician, Laboratory Aggregate Testing Technician, Concrete Transportation Construction Inspector, Concrete Construction Special Inspector, CSA-based Concrete Construction Special Inspector, Tilt-Up Supervisor and Technician, and ACI Shotcrete Nozzleman for both the dry-mix and wet-mix processes. Covering testing, inspection, and construction, these programs have had a positive impact on the quality of concrete construction throughout North America and across the globe with certified individuals residing in every U.S. state, Canadian province, and a total of 45 countries.
Overall control of Certification programs is provided by the ACI Certification staff, located at ACI headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI, with oversight provided by the Institute's hard-working Certification Programs Committees. Local sponsoring groups, located in the U.S., Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, and Panama, administer the exams, all of which include an objective (written) test-many also include a performance examination. In addition, all objective examinations may be taken at Prometric Testing Centers (formerly Sylvan Testing Centers), and the performance exams for the ACI Concrete Laboratory Testing Technician-Grade I and ACI Concrete Strength Testing Technician certification programs can be administered to technicians employed by a laboratory during evaluation by the Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory (CCRL). Upon successful completion of the written and (where appropriate) performance exams, individuals are certified for 5 or 6 years (depending on the program), after which they must again meet program requirements to be recertified.
Upcoming certification examinations are posted on the Certification page of ACI's website, www.concrete.org. The Certification page also includes a directory of ACI-certified personnel, a description of the individual programs, information on how to locate your local sponsoring group, and details on requirements for becoming certified in all 14 programs.
In recent years, the growth of ACI Certification programs has been nothing short of phenomenal, averaging 11% annually over the past 10 years. This bodes well for the concrete industry because ACI-certified professionals know how to test, inspect, and build concrete the right way. The result is a better, more enduring product, and the longer life provided by well-constructed concrete represents a boon not only to the industry, but to society as a whole, and one in which we can all take pride.
David Darwin
American Concrete Institute
daved@ku.edu
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