NWFA Announces NWFA University
The National Wood Flooring Association announced details about the NWFA University at its Wood Flooring Expo in Charlotte, NC. Along with the start of a new year of NWFA membership, the University will launch July 1, 2016.
The NWFA University is an online platform that gives individuals an opportunity to participate in wood flooring training when and where they want it. “This changes our education, our certification, everything the NWFA has built for training over the years and enables users to take advantage of our services remotely,” said Brett Miller, VP of Education and Certification, during the Remote Technical Training for Crews education session at Expo.
The NWFA University is comprised of individual learning courses lasting 15-20 minutes, with an online testing component. A series of courses will lead to badges that can be earned.
A badge is a digital representation of a learned skill, and contains content that can be shared on social media platforms. Badges will serve as prerequisites to hands-on training, which will allow for more time to develop hands-on skills during in-person training. A combination of badges and hands-on training will lead to certifications.
“The University is set up in career paths,” says Miller. “Students can take individual courses, or can bundle courses with hands-on training in defined career paths. This provides students with a clear direction for acquiring the training needed to advance their skills and differentiate themselves from their competition. It also gives them a way to let consumers see their commitment to their profession through education and training.”
As students complete courses and earn badges, their company will be prioritized in the NWFA’s “Find a Professional” search tool on its consumer web site, woodfloors.org. Those earning badges move up in the search with each badge they earn. Those earning certifications receive top listings, with multiple certifications at the top of the list.
“This is the first time we’ve been able to link training to consumers,” says Miller. “It provides tangible evidence that our members who attend training have mastered the skills needed to do the job right, and hopefully, charge more accordingly.”
Career paths for Installation certification and Sales certification will be available at launch. Additional career paths will be added throughout the year.
More information about the NWFA University is available at https://nwfa.org/nwfa-university.
The NWFA can be contacted at 800.422.4556 (USA & Canada), 636.519.9663 (local and international), or at www.nwfa.org.
