One of ONTILITY’s instructors has joined an elite club. There may be a hundred members of this group in the country, or maybe there are fifty. Certainly there aren’t 500. The exact number isn’t readily available, but you run across them every once in while. They are solar pros who are NABCEP Certified Installers in both PV and Thermal. Tim Coats is one.

These guys are the truly well-rounded solar guys and Tim is a good example. He didn’t start out as an electrician and then gravitated into PV. Nor did he start as a plumber or HVAC tech and then branch into solar thermal. He started as a solar guy. Well actually he started as a Merchant Marine Captain, but that’s another story entirely.

His first introduction to solar was a fundamentals/PV course at Solar Energy International about a decade ago. Then he landed a job in Florida with one of the true pioneers of solar thermal, Tom Lane. After a time as Mr. Lane’s lead installer, Tim moved to New Orleans where he affiliated himself with Louisiana Clean Tech, the leading solar industry trade group. One thing led to another and by the time ONTILITY was formed in 2009, Tim had made the transition from full-time installer to instructor and system design consultant, a role he fills today.

NABCEP certification is the most widely recognized and respected credential in the solar industry. And if you ask anyone who has taken either the thermal or the PV exam, they’ll verify that it is not a trivial test. And then there’s the required field experience. While neither the PV nor the thermal field experience is a huge hurdle, both together represent not only a lot of time in the industry, but a diversity of skills and knowledge not found very often. Mr. Coats earned his NABCEP Thermal Installer certification a year or so ago and this past March passed the PV exam (the first time he took it) and is now designated as a Certified NABCEP PV Installer.

ONTILTY is proud to have Tim on staff. He brings a breadth of experience and knowledge to every class he teaches and every project on which he consults. Congratulations Tim.

Here at ONTILITY, we call it solar training. We work with community colleges and technical schools – they call it education. Regardless of weather we call what we offer our solar students education or training – a topic I’ll take up at a later date – good teaching matters very much.

I ran across a report published last year by IREC in which Dr. Barbara Martin describes five key aspects of good teaching which have direct application to solar training. Dr. Martin is a former professor of education at Central Florida University and Kent State, and is a leading authority on instructional design and theory. Her guidelines for effective teaching are highly relevant for solar and energy efficiency training.

Her advice is excellent, though not revolutionary. Her five key points are used intuitively by good teachers (and anyone else concerned with highly effective communication) everywhere:

    * Know your audience – who are your students?

    * Write learning objectives

    * Test students on what they’ll need to know on the job

    * Include hands-on practice

    * Communicate clearly and as simply as possible

Knowing your audience is rule number one for every type of communication from broadcast news to standup comedy. Solar training is no different. Who the students are and why they are in the class has an enormous influence on how the course is taught. Education level, number of years in the field, prior knowledge, interests and motivations are all extremely important. In ONTILITY courses, we take time during the first class meeting to really introduce ourselves to the students and get them to share something about themselves. I’m sure some people see this as pro-forma and  unnecessary, an overused formality. I don’t see it that way at all. Students are usually eager to share their stories about who they are, how they came to be in class and what they expect to do next – all of which influences how the instructor relates to them and how the course content is presented. Then, building on these instructions, good rapport is established from the beginning of the class, helping to ensure that students are comfortable asking questions and the instructor is tuned in and can discern when a student is getting lost.

The need for good learning objectives is obvious to anyone in training or education. How can training be effective if we don’t know what it’s supposed to accomplish? How can an instructor build an effective lesson without knowing what the expected outcome is? How do students know whither or not they are getting what they need without objectives to describe what a course will enable them to learn? The key here is good learning objectives. They must be written in behavioral terms – not just a list of topics. There’s a difference. “Knowledge of various types of module mounting systems” is not an objective, but, “Describe three types of module mounting systems, circumstances in which each is commonly used and why,” is. If there isn’t a verb in an objective statement, it cannot be achieved.

Next time, we’ll look at Dr. Martin’s final two aspects of good teaching, hands-on practice and clear communication.

NABCEP has taken yet another big step in raising solar energy industry standards. Beginning this week, the NABCEP PV Entry Level Exam is available as a computer-based test offered at the more than 200 Pearson VUE testing centers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

NABCEP has always stood firmly by its objectivity as a test provider. Every presentation given by NABCEP Executive Director Ezra Auerbach, and every personal conversation for that matter, stresses that objectivity. The organization’s rigorous adherence to its core mission as a testing and certification body is one of its primary contributions to the industry.

Now, by removing virtually all of the entry level testing from the prevue of the training providers and placing that responsibility with a completely dis-interested (in a good way) third party, NABCEP is further enhancing its professionalism and making a positive contribution to the level of professionalism for the entire PV industry.

My company has been a NABCEP Entry Level Exam Provider for a couple of years and during that time we’ve administered the test to about 700 students. Throughout that process, we have been meticulous in our adherence to NABCEP’s policies and procedures regarding the exam. We have also steered clear of teaching the test – to do so would not only lessen the value of the exam, it would also damage our educational integrity and devalue our solar training. So, although I am proud of our track record as an entry level exam provider, I welcome the change.

The Fall exam date for NABCEP certification is quickly approaching. If you haven’t already applied to take the test, it may be too late. But it’s certainly not too late to start preparing.

I took the Solar PV Installer test this past March. I have to say that it was probably one of the harder open-book tests that I’ve taken. Now I’m not trying to scare anyone, but you need to be very well prepared if you want to pass. NABCEP certification has become the de facto standard for installing solar (thermal and PV) in the US. If it’s already not required to install solar in your area, it soon will be. You need to be certified.

When I walked out of the exam room, I realized that I was not as ready as I had thought. I had studied every resource and practice exam that I could find to prepare, but in the end the actual exam looked like none of what I had studied. Yet I managed to pass. Why? I think because I had spent so much time trying to solve the problem of passing the test that I practiced the very skill that is key to passing the test – Problem Solving. And that seems to be the crux of what NABCEP is looking for.

If you look at the Objectives and Task Analysis for the Solar PV Installer, everything in that document involves finding the best solution to a problem. Whether it’s identifying the correct way to deal with potential hazards, finding the best location for equipment or even selecting the best tools for a job, all of them require problem solving. As evidence, NABCEP puts significant emphasis on cognitive skills over the psychomotor skills in the Task Analysis document. Considering that this document has not changed since October, 2006, there must be some confidence that they got it right.

So how can you better prepare for the test?

I suggest spending as much time as you can in review of NEC - specifically the 2008 softbound version with the black and red cover. Electricians have an advantage by the very nature of their relationship with NEC, but even they should spend extra time with the code book. Other than a calculator, the code book is the only resource available to you during the 4-hour test. And you do not want to spend extra time trying to figure out what part of the code applies to the problems.

Additionally, review the details of every PV project you’ve been involved with, no matter how minor those details may seem. Think about issues you had to solve both during design and on-site. The kinds of problems you’ve solved before may show up on a 60 question test in September.

Lastly, find some study partners. If you can’t find people who have already taken the test, get together with people who are taking the test. Study partners can share experiences they’ve had, which will add to your knowledge base.

If after all of that you still feel like you need some extra help, join us at one of our AS210 Exam Prep classes being held around the country. We’ll bring study partners and share our vision of what you need to focus on to pass.

The solar energy industry is maturing in many ways. It is moving quickly beyond the “mom and pop shop” wear-as-many-hats-as-it-takes phase. Solar companies are growing and specialization is coming, fast.

To keep up with the industry’s maturation, NABCEP announced recently the release of a job task analysis for PV Technical Sales Certification. This certification will apply to people not directly engaged in the installation of PV systems – as Ezra Auerbach, Executive Director of NABCEP said recently, “anyone who doesn’t wear a tool belt”. This and other certifications NABCEP has planned are necessary and very welcome. They not only acknowledge the maturity of the industry; they also provide a credentialed career path for a variety of renewable energy professionals.

From the point of view of a training developer, I welcome the opportunity to bring specialized, highly focused courses into a solar training program. Students will be better-served through higher quality, more relevant coursework. The days of one-size-fits-all solar training are past.

NABCEP’s new task analysis clearly acknowledges a trend toward specialization. It also will lead that trend. The demand for credentialed specialists is part of the market – the presence of credentials for specialists feeds the demand.

And in the same way that the PV installer task analysis has influenced how installers are trained, the Technical Sales analysis will guide the development of new courses, new criteria for competence and a new level of professionalism.