If you need to book crane certification training, we suggest not waiting until the last minute -– crane training providers across the U.S. are reporting they’re busier than they’ve ever been.
The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators says it broke crane certification records for March and April: the organization exceeded 15,000 exams during each month. “This level of testing in one month is equivalent to all the tests CCO provided for the entire year of 2001,” noted NCCCO’s Tara Whittington.
Mobile crane operator training via either NCCER or NCCCO was the number one crane operator class in demand provided by the North American Crane Bureau and Crane Industry Services (CIS.) Following closely behind, both organizations noted a rise in popularity for rigger qualification. CIS is also seeing a jump for their mobile crane inspector program.
The Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau (CICB) is also seeing unprecedented demand for crane training – CICB spent all of summer fully booked, it said, noting a mixture of demand when it came to online or in-person crane training courses.
At Bigfoot Crane Company, Inc., Ralf Notheis, crane academy manager, said even during the initial months of Covid-19 lockdowns, the company experienced increased demand for full certification crane and rigging courses.
“Since the start of the pandemic, right up to today, we have seen a solid increase of 40 percent in operator training and certification demand,” Notheis said.
And over at the North American Crane Bureau (NACB), crane certification training numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’re so busy that we have brought on a few new trainers to ensure we can meet the high demand for regularly scheduled training and on-site training programs,” said Dana Jackson, vice president of sales and marketing, NACB, Inc.
The increase in crane courses being taken can be attributed to a number of factors, but the top two are recertification extensions due to lockdowns, and recruiting new talent to fill the ever-broadening labor shortage.
“We face numerous challenges in filling the skilled trades,” said Jackson with NACB.
“Employers need their people on jobs but also appreciate how critical quality training and certification testing is,” added Debbie Dickinson, CEO, Crane Industry Services (CIS). “With the emerging workforce having fewer years of experience, more training time is needed to reach acceptable and optimal levels of safe crane and rigging work.”
So, don’t delay – head over to Easybook Training to browse the massive catalog of available crane courses available and book your course today.
