Certified Success: Roofing’s Next Chapter - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Estefani Albright, the first woman to achieve the NRCA PROCertification and of Jared Ribble of the National Roofing Contractors Association. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips, the podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey across the world of roofing. From fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on-the-road Adventures, we'll uncover the stories, innovations and challenges that shape the rooftops over our heads. So fasten your seatbelts and join us as we embark on this exciting roofing road trip.

Hello everyone. My name's Megan Ellsworth here at RoofersCoffeeshop.com, and you are listening to Roofing Road trips. I'm so excited. We're here to talk about pro certification with NRCA today, and the first woman to get pro certified Estefani Albright. And I'm here also with Jared Ribble. Hello, you two. How are you?

Estefani Albright: Hi. Thank you so much for having us. I'm good. How are you doing?

Megan Ellsworth: So good. Let's just dive in and have you introduce yourself. Estefani, can you introduce yourself and then we'll get to you, Jared?

Estefani Albright: Yeah. My name is Estefani Albright. I am 24 years old. I started in roofing when I was 18 years old, and I am born and raised in Venezuela. Came here in 2017 and learned English then.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. That's amazing. Congratulations. This is such an achievement. Pro certification, yay!

Estefani Albright: It is. I am so happy to be here.

Megan Ellsworth: Jared, can you introduce yourself for us?

Jared Ribble: Sure. Well, I'm Jared Ribble. I'm the Vice President of Certification for the National Roofing Contractors Association. Honored to head up and lead this great initiative across our country where we verify the skills and knowledge of our great hands that do the work up on the roof. So that's what I get to do every day.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. Jared, could you kind of set the scene in the history of the NRCA pro certification program and why it's so important?

Jared Ribble: Sure. I'd be happy to. So for decades upon decades upon decades, right? I mean every roof has a building on it. So for decades, we've had no way to verify and know that the person installing that roof and that roofing material, we've had no way of knowing and verifying that they are quality and professional. So just like other trades have certifications that verify that you're a quality electrician or a quality plumber, or I go all the way back to and think about getting a haircut, your barber is a certified barber. Or you'd never send your taxes off to be put together by a non-certified public accountant. It's a certified public accountant.

So all trades, all industries have a way of verifying that the person doing the work for you is a professional, and now the roofing industry has that. So for years we've been building this out, and in 2018 we launched it. It's a certification for the roofing installer, and it is system specific. So the skills to install a thermoplastic roof system are very different than the skills to install clay and concrete tile or asphalt shingle. And so it's a system specific certification. You take a skills assessment.

Most of the certifications now we've got it set up where you can submit videos and pictures of your work to be assessed. So that's a great streamlined way to do it. Have your worker working up on the job and take pictures and take video, and we give you a list of the things that we want to see. We even give you an app that you put on your phone to just shoot it right to us. Because I don't know if you've ever tried to get video or pictures off your phone, it's not actually that easy. But we make it easy.

So submit video and picture evidence, have it assessed by third party independent assessors and earn your certification. Foremen can get a certification. That is a knowledge exam where we test your knowledge on how well do you know the safety up on a job, how well are you running your crew, how are you dealing with your customers? And so that's more of a knowledge test. But the skills test for the installers, the hands that are doing the work, that's a skills test. We also have certifications for our service and maintenance technicians. So that's really cool. That one's taken off like gangbusters, which is really fun.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

Jared Ribble: So all of it though, it comes down to verifying the skills and the knowledge of the workers on the job. And Megan, there's just thousands and thousands of quality roofing installers out there of all races, of all genders. And they deserve to have that red badge on their arm that tells everyone around them, "I am a true professional." And what this does, it's really, really cool when a company really grabs hold of this, what it does is when they get their best installers and their foremen certified, the rest of the crew wants the certification. Which allows the company training manager to come alongside them and say, "All right, great. We want to get you honored like this, but you've got some skill deficiencies. Let's work on your inside corners. Let's work on your outside corners," whatever the skill deficiency might be.

So it's been really, really cool to see companies grab hold of it to honor their workers, for workers to kind of have the pride of like, "Man, I am a true professional and I've got evidence to show for it." And then the rest of the crews stepping up going, "Wait a minute, I'm going to raise my game too."

Really quick. One thing, another sort of butterfly effect that's going on is our consultants and architects are getting a hold of it and they're starting to say, "Wait a minute. We've got a way to verify who's on the job. We're going to put it in the spec, and ask that this job at all times has a certified foreman on it, or this job has two or three certified installers on the job as well."

So it's really kind of interesting how the architects have been getting a hold of it and they're starting to put it inside the spec requiring it. But again, the companies that deserve to get those jobs, they've got the professionals. Just take the test, submit the video evidence, it doesn't take long, just do it and put everybody at ease, put the building owner at ease, that the people on the roof are in fact quality professionals.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. That is so cool that the architects and consultants are hopping on board as well and putting that into the specs, that's really impressive too.

Jared Ribble: Yeah, because what has happened, labor shortage requires companies oftentimes to have to go to subcontract labor who might sub it out again and again. And the design community, the roof consultants who have been managing, working for the building owner to be the eyes and ears up on that job, they're starting to say, "Wait a minute, we hired this great company, but we don't know who these workers are anymore." And just Jared and NRCA, we don't care who is on that job. We don't care if it's sub labor. We don't care if that's your company's business model. Great, that works. But make sure that a couple of those workers have been certified. So everyone knows that the hands doing the important detail work are skilled and have their skills verified.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. So Stephanie, I would love for you to tell us a little bit about your journey into roofing and how that led you to pursue the NRCA pro certification.

Estefani Albright: Yeah, for sure. Real quick, I just wanted to add to what Jared was saying about the foreman wanting to, "Hey, I want to do that." We in our roofing company with Roman Roofing, we are proud of our workers and we wanted the world, the contractors, our client, to know that we are proud of it and that we trust in the work that we do. So that's what led me to the pro certification.

So I think I mentioned, I started roofing when I was 18 years old. I did anything possible to be able to learn in roofing. Just I quickly realized that I wanted to make a career out of it. There's just so much opportunity from the client perspective to the production, to the estimating, marketing. There's just so much to it, and you also need the credibility. So on my side, that was my part. I want to show that I am serious about the roofing industry. How can I get there? So the NRCA pro certification, it's a great, great tool that I was able to do. And thankfully all of the women that I've been around, they are so smart in the roofing industry. So I am honored to be the first woman to have the pro certification with the NRCA.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, that's so awesome. I love it. So as the first woman to earn the certification, what does this achievement mean to you personally, and how do you see it inspiring other women in roofing to get this certification?

Estefani Albright: Thank you. So it is a great achievement. It's an honor. I feel like it shows that you've put the hard work throughout the years and you're able to show it, and I think it will inspire other women to do it. This is just not... Yes, it is men dominant industry, but women have the same opportunities and I think it should be a standard for men and women and foremen out there to become pro certified.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, I agree. No matter what your gender is, what your identity is, go get pro certified.

Estefani Albright: Yes. I think it should be a standard in the roofing industry just to show that we know what we put on and that we are proud of what we do.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. It's so exciting. So Jared, what sets this program apart from other training programs and how does it-