November 17, 2022—CCO is happy to announce that it will be debundling certification cycles to ensure that most candidates receive the full term of their certification period. An individual who is currently certified and chooses to add a new designation will be granted a certification that has issue and expiration dates independent of the certification they already held.
Under the old policy, a certificant who subsequently added a designation would hold that certification only for the duration of the originally issued designation; essentially, they did not receive the full term of the certification issued. To add to the confusion, when a new designation was added a determination was made if the candidate had to recertify during their next recertification cycle, or the following one. In most cases, this resulted in candidates getting less than five years of certification length on added designations. This was unfair to candidates, created confusion for recertification candidates, caused misunderstanding in the industry relating to when certifications were earned, and discouraged candidates from seeking additional designations.
In January 2023, in most instances when a certified individual earns a new designation, that new designation will be granted with issue and expiration dates based on when that specific certification was earned. For instance, if an individual holds a Rigger certification that was issued January 2022 (expiring January 2027) and completes Signalperson certification in January 2023, then the Signalperson certification will have an issue date of January 2023 and expire in January 2028. This would have no effect on the Rigger certification expiration date.
There are a limited number of programs where, because the certification is based on multiple exams, an independent issue and expiration date cannot be granted when adding a certification within that same program. For instance, because the Telescopic Boom Crane – Fixed Cab certification relies on the Mobile Crane Operator Core exam, someone adding that to a Lattice Boom Crane certification would not be issued independent dates. However, if that individual added Tower Crane Operator certification, that would be issued independent dates. CCO programs in which adding multiple designations would result in coupling of dates are:
- Mobile Crane Operator
- Articulating Crane Operator
- Drill Rig Operator
- Telehandler Operator
- Rigger Level I & II
- Crane Inspector, and
- Lift Director
CCO intends this change to improve fairness for all who rely on their CCO certifications to secure employment.