November 7, 2023—The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) Personnel Certification Accreditation Committee has voted to grant CCO continued accreditation for 2023–2024. CCO is recognized by ANAB as certification body #0756, meeting the international ISO/IEC 17024 standard for organizations that certify personnel. This is the highest bar of accreditation available to certification bodies.
Rigorous Process
ANAB requires a comprehensive report annually documenting program performance and internal procedures, and grants continued accreditation only if all requirements are met. ANSI requirements are rigorous and designed to give assurance to those who depend on certification programs that the tests are fair, sound, and valid assessments of the knowledge and skills they are intended to measure. As a result, ANSI accreditation demonstrates that CCO’s nationally recognized and administered programs have been developed—and are maintained—to the highest standards of integrity.
CCO received its first ANSI accreditations in 2007, and additional accreditations have been progressively awarded as new programs matured with a total of 18 programs accredited today.
The ANAB assessor spent two days at CCO’s Utah office, reviewing more than 4,600 pages of documentation submitted in response to ANAB annual surveillance requirements. The ANAB assessor also witnessed a practical exam demonstration and tried their hands at an Online Proctored Testing (OPT) written exam to get a feel for CCO’s new exam delivery platform.
Overall, the assessor was thoroughly impressed with all of CCO’s new systems. As a result of guidance provided by the assessor on exactly what ANAB requires to comply with the standard regarding the agreement that candidates and certificants are required to sign, CCO has updated its Code of Ethics.
Why Is It Important?
Third-party accreditation is a crucial differentiator between CCO certifications and other options, whether those be another certification or a qualification. The international ISO/IEC 17024 standard for organizations that certify personnel is world-class and unsurpassed in terms of acceptance and portability.
Certification of persons to the ISO/IEC standard assures that the certified person has been evaluated and assessed by a neutral, third-party body through a rigorous process and found to have the knowledge and skills to perform competently.
Accredited certification places an emphasis on the process to develop the exam as well as psychometric analysis of the performance of the exam. These steps ensure that the exams are valid, reliable, fair, and legally defensible.
There is no other higher standard. Employers can rely on the certification and are not exposed to questions over the validity or fairness of the exam.
Third-party accreditation also ensures that CCO follows practices that are fair to candidates and certified persons. It confirms that candidates are provided due process throughout the certification process and that concerns, complaints, and appeals are handled by the certification body in a fair and expedient manner.
For candidates, portability and nationwide acceptance are additional benefits of CCO’s accredited certification. Not only does it create portability, but it assists in differentiating the skill level of individuals through a nationally accepted program.
Ultimately, third-party accreditation speaks to the quality of CCO and the certifications issued. It is just one of the reasons CCO has become known as the gold standard for those in and around load handling equipment.