What is NCCER?

January 28th 2020
By: Cari-Ann Carty

What is NCCER?

  • A not-for-profit education foundation created in 1996 as The National Center for Construction Education and Research (dba.NCCER). It was developed with the support of more than 125 construction CEO’s, associations, and academic leaders who come together to transform training for the construction industry. Twenty-four years ago, NCCER started with just 5 content areas and now twenty-four years later they have developed curricula for more than 70 craft areas and completed a series of more than 70 assessments offered in over 6,000 NCCER-accredited training assessment locations across the United States.
  • NCCER develops standardized construction and maintenance curriculum and assessments with portable credentials. These credentials are tracked through NCCER’s Registry System that allows organizations and companies to track the qualifications of their craft professionals by maintaining their records in a secure database.
  • NCCER’s workforce development process of accreditation , instructor certification. standardized curriculum, registry, assessment, and certification is a key component in the industry’s workforce development efforts. NCCER also drives multiple initiatives to enhance career development and recruitment efforts for the industry, primarily through its Build Your Future initiative. www.BYF.org


NCCER’s Mission
To build a safe productive and sustainable workforce of craft professionals.

Core Curriculum
NCCER Core Curriculum provides individuals an overview of the various fields of basic safety, introduction to construction math, hand tools, power tools, construction drawings, basic rigging, basic communication skills, basic employability skills, and materials handling. Students will develop knowledge of the skills related to the Core curriculum and how it applies to work in the industrial/construction trades.

Core Curriculum supports integrating academic and technical knowledge with skills. Students will learn, apply, and transfer knowledge and skills to a variety of settings throughout the curriculum. Knowledge about career opportunities, requirements, and expectations, plus the development of workplace skills, will prepare the students for future success.

Students completing the required coursework, end of module written exams as well as completion of hands performance profiles, must be completed in order to receive an NCCER Certification of Completion , Blue Card ( Wallet Card) , and will also be registered in the NCCER rRegistry system.