NRCA ProCert Slate Program – JTA Meeting
(Left to Right) Chad Brandon, Tom Stortz, Gary Howes, Alan Buohl, John Mahan, Greg Derry, Dave Karel, Korby Grist (kneel), Shane Day, John Chan, Marcelino Alvarez
This past week, June 1st-3rd, a dozen slate roofers met in Chicago at the NRCA headquarters. The objective was to spend time honing in on the skillset that makes a professional slate roofer. This knowledge would then be used to outline and create the NRCA’s ProCertification program.
What is NRCA ProCertification?
You can read about the full benefits of ProCertification on the NRCA website. The program was developed to create a competent, sustainable, and high-performing roofing workforce. Among the program’s many benefits are:
● Creating a slate roofing related career path
● Elevating the level of installation
● Protecting consumers by ensuring consistent quality
● Full promotion of the program by NRCA to its members and the construction industry as
a whole
● Ability of design professionals to add ProCertification to their project specifications
● Heightened awareness and amplified use of slate
The Next Steps
The JTA committee’s goal is to answer such questions like “what makes an efficient slate roofer” and “what tools does a slate roofer need to install successfully”. Lists of 50 characteristics were gathered and then the top answers were weighted to get a clear understanding of importance. This info goes into the creation of the online test that needs to be passed before moving on to the physical skills exam. Other questions arose like whether testing soldering proficiency, or should the roofer have the ability to do a graduated roof, were discussed whether they should be part of the exam. This time spent was a great 3 day discussion on the values that make up a slate roofer. There is going to be another hands on meeting in October at the NSA conference in Saratoga Springs to prepare for the physical part of the exam.
The Goal
Poor installation is felt by the entire industry. Word of mouth is extremely powerful and next thing you know slate has a poor reputation even though it’s the finest roofing material available. The creation of a ProCertified slate roofer makes it so the consumer can feel confident they are getting a roof that they are paying for. ProCert should bring confidence to the architects and consultants specifying it as well as being a marketing tool that can be used by the roofing contractor. With the expertise of the NRCA in coming to market with a complete certification process, we are in good hands for taking the slate industry to the next level.
