More than 30 industry stakeholders attended CIC's annual meeting, held March 5-7, 2013 in Lake Mary, Fla. A cross-section of experts from CIC's Governing and Advisory Committees plus several notable guests reviewed written and practical exam materials in preparation for re-accreditation with the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and application for accreditation with ANSI.
"NCCA requires re-accreditation every five years. CIC first became accredited by NCCA in 2008. CIC has also received preliminary application approval from ANSI and expects to add ANSI accreditations this year for mobile and tower cranes at different levels of type and capacity," said Debbie Dickinson, executive director of CIC. "Applying for accreditation or re-accreditation could not be done without the hard work of CIC's Governing and Advisory Committees, which is made up of industry experts who volunteer their time to this endeavor," she said.
In addition to reviewing existing certification programs, new program development was a key focus during CIC's annual meeting. Operator certifications for digger derricks and tower cranes are nearing completion and are expected to be available for testing by May. In addition, a new designation for mobile crane type has been added to allow applicants to be certified by hydraulic or friction load hoist.
CIC's Rigging Committee is currently working on a new certification category for lift directors. "Much of the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to be a Lift Director are already identified under the Rigger exams," explained Mike Parnell, Rigging Committee chairman and president of Industrial Training International, Woodland, Wash. "Additional knowledge areas include mobile crane operations, lift planning and procedural and personnel activities during load handling," Parnell said.
The reason CIC felt it was important to develop a certification for this position is because the designation of lift director is increasingly being identified in various standards, including ASME B30, OSHA 1926.1400, and the yet-to-be-released ASME P30 standard, explained Parnell. Item writing and initial development has already begun on the Lift Director certification program, and the goal is to have it ready to launch by ConExpo-Con/Agg 2014.
Other certification programs in development are Crane Inspector/Certifier and Overhead Crane Operator.
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
