Education thread

[Jeffrey L. Mathis]

I tried to ask a question of Brian regarding the Casey, O'Malley Conference and getting "certified". I was blocked. So I'll move over here.
What does certified mean? Certified by who? A private entity or a professional standards body? I don't get it.
I enjoy reading the posts and posting on this board, and if the owners have economic interests in certain companies, I have no problem with that, but those interests should be made clear and up front and it seems as though that may be the case here.
I get very concerned when the word "Certified" gets bandied about. Is it not a euphemism for "Pay to play"?
JLMathis

[Nick Ostrowski]

Not sure what you mean when you say you asked Brian a question and got blocked.

As for the "certified" label, I wouldn't read into it meaning anything. Because "certified" in this profession really doesn't mean anything. There is no watermark or benchmark that is unilaterally observed in the home inspection profession that everybody agrees qualifies for the "certified" label. It is an overused and essentially punchless designation.

[Brian Hannigan]

I tried to ask a question of Brian regarding the Casey, O'Malley Conference and getting "certified". I was blocked. So I'll move over here.
What does certified mean? Certified by who? A private entity or a professional standards body? I don't get it.
I enjoy reading the posts and posting on this board, and if the owners have economic interests in certain companies, I have no problem with that, but those interests should be made clear and up front and it seems as though that may be the case here.
I get very concerned when the word "Certified" gets bandied about. Is it not a euphemism for "Pay to play"?
JLMathis

Hi Jeffrey,

As soon as the actual topics are nailed down then the certifying bodies for those topics will be announced as well.

Casey, O'Malley Associates is known for their quality education so I would expect nothing but the best from them. I know they are not looking for "Certified By Joe", rubber stamps.

The goal is to have the normal 2 day educational conference and then an extra 2 - 3 days of advanced topics and certifications.

As soon as more details are available I will post them here.

Sorry about not being able to reply in that other section. It is set up for me to post announcements of educational events and not for discussions. Starting the thread here is perfect.

This inspection conference (http://www.inspectionconference.com) is as close as I can get to us having our own InspectionNews Conference. I do have an economic interest in the conference so I hope all of you who frequent this site will come to the conference in support of me & InspectionNews. Everybody can use great education and I gotta pay the bills ;).

[Ted Williams]

I haven't read about Brian's thing, but in the state of Maryland you are required to have 80 hours of education (classroom and on-site instruction only, online training is not allowed) and pass the final exam from a licensed instructional school such as AHIT. You then have to pass the National Home Inspector Exam proctored by Pearson View, and are then considered Certified. But, you still have far more work to do in as far as licensing, tax id, insurance, etc. All of which are required.

Maryland is also in the process of introducing legislation regarding continuing education requirements similar to those of Realtors.