The Positive Impact of ProCertification

By Cass Jacoby. 

Jared Ribble shares how ProCertification is being included in roofing specifications and becoming the new gold standard for roofing skills. 

In Season 4, Episode 41 of Roofing Road Trips, the NRCA’s Jared Ribble sits down in person with Heidi J. Ellsworth during the 2022 NRCA Summer Meeting for exciting news about how ProCertification® is starting to be included in roofing specifications. The two discuss the impact of ProCertification and how roofing companies can build their business by getting their employees certified.  

Jared works with the NRCA to help them build and run their ProCertification department. He defined ProCertification as “a bar of professionalism that the industry has come together and agreed on.” ProCertification was built for qualified roofing workers to become nationally certified in specific roof system designations. 

Different from training, ProCertification is all about building a system that proves the skill of a roofer across the board. “You can get training at trade school and tech schools, you can get training at manufacturer, you can get training next to your dad, working alongside your dad,” says Jared. “We don't care where you get your training, but we do want you to sit for this assessment and get your skills verified, make sure that the training's stuck.” 

The program is not only about setting the standards for the roofing industry and creating pathways to careers in roofing, it is also becoming a huge part of the shared vocabulary between consultants, architects and engineers’ expectations and the roofer's ability to deliver. 

“There is drafted specification language that this group of consultants is downloading from NRCA's website, they're passing it around and they're using it as a boiler plate to start putting the need for, and sometimes the requirement for, certified installers up on their job,” says Jared. 

ProCertification ultimately is a program that was created to garner more Roofing Respect for the industry by certifying the skills and professionalism of a roofer. Jared tells Heidi that the certification is about elevating the entire industry. 

“It's elevating the perception of the roofing industry and that's sort of the trick is to...we are not saying that the roofing installers that we have out on the roofs today are not professional and not quality, but there is a perception,” says Jared. “But we have to make sure that there is a bar to elevate the ones that aren't.” 

Listen to the podcast for more insight about ProCertification’s impact and how certifying your workers can help you build your business. 

Learn more about NRCA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.nrca.net. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.