Joe M: I agree with your entire last post with only one minor exception.
Not all exams/quizes are meant to determine competency only. Every exam and quiz we have has an additional and very EDUCATIONAL purpose… that is to alert the exam taker to where he/she is weak.
The clearest example of this in action (a quiz being educational) is our own Standards of Practice Quiz which is NOT EVEN GRADED. Its not graded because its purpose is NOT to permit the taker to demonstrate competency to a bureaucat. Its purpose is 100% EDUCATIONAL. It educates the taker as to where he/she may either be over or under inspecting.
When one views quizes and exams (especially ours which reveal taker weakness) as educational… one must then see CMI’s requirements http://www.nachi.org/cmirequirements.htm in a different light.
CMI then becomes (among other requirements)…
an exam,
a course,
a quiz,
48 hours of continuing education,
another course,
some more quizes,
another course,
some more quizes,
another exam,
another exam,
an educational seminar,
another course,
some more quizes,
*]and another exam.
Sure sounds like “education” to me.
Michael, I am in no way offended, if fact you may be surprised to know that I am personally not a fan of CMI in its present form, that is not to say that it is worthless rather that it still has someways to go.
Nick brought up the example of using an exam myself and the education committee had previously developed, and I do strongly feel that standardized testing should be a part of the CMI model (hell we have the best model in the industry to do it with).
I do agree somewhat with the concept that all industry designations are pointless unless they are like the ICC certifications accepted by all parties connected to property inspection.
Like yourself I believe that anything including the word “Master” should be of a demostrably higher standard. Which in my case I translate as members who wish to achieve CMI status being able to demonstrate a level of knowledge above that of an entry level inspector.
BTW if you care to search the old board, this is the position I have held for 2 years now.
OK, Nick. I will concede that it does sound like several courses, not a single course. I am not sure that taking several courses, or a series of them (or even 48 hours worht) was clearly written into the CMI requiremetns you linked to.
If you are counting the NACHI membership requirements as quizzes and courses, then I think we should make a serious attempt to separate the concepts (since this is an additional designation) and talk about only what relates to the CMI (membership is a pre-requisite, so those courses/tests are not part of this discussion).
Gerry, I agree more with you that it should be a top-level, difficult to obtain designation and should have a heavy educational coponent. I would like to see it modeled after the ICC certification (which, by the way, does NOT force inspectors to take time off to travel to attend a physical class anywhere!).
I would still prefer to see the idea dry up and blow away…