The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) and the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) announced today that they have entered into a professional partnership for the development and administration of 
nationally accredited certification programs. The partnership puts the NWSA a strategically important step closer to rolling out their certification programs for tower technicians expected to be available sometime in 2016.
NCCCO, founded in 1995, has a 20-year successful track record of offering national assessment and certification programs for workers in various construction trades who work in and around cranes. The mission of NCCCO is to develop effective performance standards for those who work in and around cranes; provide fair, valid and reliable assessments of their knowledge and skill; and act as an authoritative industry resource of related information.
The mission of the NWSA is to provide thorough, independent assessments of knowledge and skills and provide verifiable worker certification in order to enhance safety, reduce workplace risk, improve quality, encourage training, and recognize the skilled professionals who work on towers and other non-standard structures.
A key component of the partnership involves NCCCO’s professional consulting assistance in further developing NWSA’s various worker certification programs to the ANSI/ISO 17024 accreditation standard, the premier accreditation for personnel certification bodies. NCCCO will also provide test development and administrative services to the NWSA as part of the agreement.
Additionally, the NWSA-NCCCO partnership also includes a co-branding agreement to offer CCO Signalperson and Rigger certification programs, beginning in the fall of 2015, making them the first official certification programs to be made available by the NWSA to the telecommunications industry.
“The NWSA is excited to partner with NCCCO in order to ensure that our various worker certification program offerings achieve official ANSI 17024 accreditation status,” said NWSA consultant Chuck Slagle, a former Sprint Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) Executive. “It is very evident that NWSA’s mission is aligned with NCCCO’s mission from a safety and quality perspective and this working relationship is going to help expedite the process of getting NWSA’s certification programs to the marketplace,” added Slagle.
”In our 20th anniversary year, NCCCO is delighted to enter into this agreement with NWSA in order to facilitate use by the telecommunications industry of a credentialing process that has been proven to have had a major positive impact on the safety of those who participate in it,” said NCCCO Chief Executive Officer, Graham Brent. “During our relationship with NWSA to date, it’s become abundantly clear that NWSA’s leadership is driven by the same passion for safety and professionalism that launched the CCO certification programs two decades ago.”
The NWSA organization is a by-product of collaboration between a broad coalition of the industry’s leading subject matter experts, companies and stakeholders representing wireless carriers, tower owners, OEM’s, turnkey management firms, small contractors and tower climbers. Industry leaders have pledged to provide timely and relevant updates to the industry as key benchmarks are achieved in the establishment of the NWSA national assessment and certification program.
NCCCO is as an independent, non-profit organization to develop and administer a nationwide program for the certification of crane operators and related personnel. Since then, NCCCO has administered over 950,000 nationally accredited written and practical examinations and issued more than 280,000 nationally accredited and OSHA-compliant certifications in all 50 states.