Continuing education is often a source of stress and frustration for the license/certification holder, especially when it has been neglected until the renewal payment is due. With some simple planning, that stress can be avoided.
NICET
Renewing NICET Certification every three years requires documenting 90 hours of CPD (continuing professional development) points. While 90 hours may sound like a lot of time, getting the points you need is fairly simple.
NICET allows 72 of the required 90 points to come from full time employment in the field that you hold certification. As long as your job still relates to your certification, this handles a significant amount of the requirement.
The remaining 18 points can come from a variety of sources, one of which is training. Any training used for recertification must be applicable to the certification. For example, if you hold a Fire Alarm Certification, almost any training related to fire alarm systems can be used.
NICET is extremely flexible in what they will allow to be used for the training CPD points. NICET does not require pre-approval of the training and NICET will allow live or online training to be used. The only requirement is that the training advances your skills and knowledge in the area of certification. You must note the date, location, name of company presenting, subject matter, and brief description in your NICET CPD Log.
If you plan to advance your certification, NICET will typically also allow certification prep training. Any training that you claim must be ABOVE your current level of certification in order to be accepted by NICET. For example, if you are currently Level II, only training for Level III or IV Certification would be acceptible.
For more information, check out this article on the NICET website.
Cities and States
Renewing your license in cities and states is a different matter and can be more complicated. City and state requirements for renewing a license will vary from city to city and state to state. It is also not uncommon for the specific requirements to change during a renewal cycle as well, causing even more confusion.
When renewing a city or state license, the first step should be to contact the licensing organization to confirm the renewal requirements. Sometimes the information is readily available on the organizations website, while other times a telephone call or email is required to get clear information.
If continuing education is needed, make sure you get the specific requirements for any continuing education programs. These requirements cane change, and having the most up to date information will help you spend your money and time wisely.
If your city or state requires pre-approval of a continuing education program or program providers, get a list of currently approved providers and programs. Some organizations will assign an expiration date to a provider or program, so you want to be sure you are investing in a currently accepted program.
Many cities and states will accept or approve manufacturer training. If the organization will accept a manufacturer training program, this will allow you to combine product education with accumulating required continuing education hours. Some manufacturers even offer free training, allowing you to accumulate the required credits with just an investment of your time.
NTC Training
NTC live, online, and webinar classes are an excellent way to meet your continuing education requirements. NTC also offers free monthly webinars on a variety of topics that may count towards your requirements as well.
Our students regularly use our training for meeting NICET CPD requirements. You can accumulate most of the CPDs available from training by attending a two day class (16 hours). Online training offers even more options to meet your CPD needs.
While we seek continuing education approval from cities and states, since the rules vary from state to state it is nearly impossible to meet every state’s requirements. If you would like to know if our training is currently approved for continuing education in your city or state, email us and we’re happy to check for you.