Evolution of the IICRC: ANSI

There have been a lot of changes to the IICRC in the past two years, and we realize that change is never easy. But change is a natural occurrence in any organization, including ours. For the IICRC, those many changes have helped the IICRC continue to grow and move forward to meet the needs of its registrants and consumers.

As part of that continuing evolution, there are a number of changes taking place that you may have heard about, and I wanted to take this opportunity to provide more background information. There are four main areas of change, but today we’ll look at one in particular: ANSI accreditation.

In an effort to achieve recognition for IICRC approved training and certification programs in addition to its current ANSI-accredited Standards Developer status, IICRC began the process of becoming ANSI accredited as a certifying organization. IICRC learned that the organization would need to undergo major changes in order to become ANSI accredited as a certifying organization.

These upgrades included changes in the very structure of IICRC. Changes in how exams are developed and administered, as well as internal processing changes and controls that need to be put into place.

It is very important to note that all the existing courses and exams will continue as they currently are being offered including instructor proctored exams. These are considered “Certificate” level training courses in the ANSI terminology. The “Accredited Certification” designations are not linked to any specific training courses but are focused on a specially developed exam. Although not required, completion of the certificate-training program is still strongly encouraged to give the candidate a better chance of actually passing the accredited-certification exam.

The accredited certification exams being developed are in addition to – not instead of – our existing programs and are designed to give additional credentials, credibility, and opportunity to those that achieve this level. It is our understanding that these accredited certification exams will also, in almost every case, meet any state licensing requirements that are on the horizon, with Florida being the first example from earlier this year.

I would compare the “Certificate” level training courses to law school for the lawyer or college economics classes for the accountant. So far, the IICRC is only developing one such accreditation exam, “Mold Removal Specialist”. It is likely more will follow in the future. It is this level of exam that requires the separation of training, the non-instructor development of the exam, and the non-instructor delivery/proctoring of the exam.

It is our goal that someday both the certificate level programs and any accredited certification level programs we offer will be ANSI approved for what they are.