Why Recertification?
Certification is good for business. 87% of technicians said they wanted a certified technician to work on their home comfort system.

But NATE certification does not last forever.

Certification lasts for five years. Technicians earning certification must recertify every five years before their certification reaches its expiration date or the certification expires. Technicians who let their certification lapse and expire must retest by retaking both the CORE and SPECIALTY tests.

NATE certification gives contractors and technicians a differentiating factor for consumers, a quality edge on their competition. Why do 87% of consumers want a certified technician? They want assurance that the technician they invite into their home will do a job right the first time. Many technicians in the HVACR industry claim to be good, but NATE certified technicians can prove it. Customers want the assurance of a job well-done that a technician with proven knowledge provides. They know that you can't match the patch!

Working HVAC technicians know that correct

• installation and service mean fewer callbacks or
• fewer warranty returns of products because of installation or service defects--and
• fewer callbacks make a business more profitable, because generally
• callbacks do not produce revenue.

In a business where profit margins are lean, many contractors are looking to provide their customers with incremental value--and having a NATE-certified technician call on a customer shows a commitment to professionalism, proficiency, and pride in a job well-done. Customers want NATE-certified technicians because they are aware that NATE-certified technicians know heating and cooling. Holding on to certification a technician has earned becomes very important.

What is Recertification
No certification lasts forever. NATE certification is valid for five years. Every technician's wallet card shows when each specialty a technician earned expires—and if a technician has not recertified by that date, his certification has lapsed and expired.

Although it is the technician’s responsibility to stay abreast of certification and recertification, NATE notifies technicians in writing three months prior to expiration by sending notice to the technician’s home of record information in NATE’s contact data base. If the technician has not upgraded his personal contact data, or if it is incomplete, NATE cannot notify the technician. Technicians can use their NATE ID and PIN and go to natetesting.com, log in, and keep their telephone, address, and email addresses and employer contact information current.

To recertify, a technician has to complete the recertification process before the expiration date on his card is reached. In general, the administrative portion of recertification may take four calendar weeks--and that means if a technician's certification expires 30 June, that technician should submit documentation to NATE by 30 May of that year to keep his or her certification from lapsing. Technicians who are unsure of the dates of their certification can use their name, employer and employer contact information, and their NATE ID number to search for their dates of validity on the web.

To check certification, technicians can go to

• the Information/Forms/Data page, click on the Candidates, Training & Recertification section and click on the link for Check Test Results Online, or
• www.natetesting.com, click on the Candidates section, and click on the link for Login using your NATE ID and PIN.

Paths to Recertification
A technician may recertify by:

1. Taking the full 100 question specialty test and passing it with a grade of 70% or higher before his current certification expires
2. Providing documentation of sixty or more hours of NATE-recognized training in the last sixty calendar months (past five years, counting back from the expiration date on the wallet card) and taking no test.

Providers of NATE-Recognized Training
Providers of NATE-recognized training can display the NATE-recognized logo. Training which bears this logo applies to the industry-created NATE knowledge base, and therefore relates directly to KATEs (Knowledge Areas of Technician Expertise) and the NATE test. This training also applies to continuing education used for NATE recertification. A list of training providers showing classes and CEU's which count toward recertification and an alignment form for providers of training to complete are on the NATE Information, Forms & Data section .

It is the responsibility of the training facility to apply for NATE recognition. The trainer does this by showing how the course curriculum covers topics included in one or more of the KATE outlines. By submitting the alignment form which shows how the course relates to one or more KATEs, trainers align their courses with NATE's knowledge base and qualify as a NATE-recognized training provider.

Trainers who submit courses and whose courses have earned NATE recognition are listed on the List of NATE Recognized Training. They have done all the paperwork and legwork for technicians.

Classes technicians take that have not earned NATE Recognition can still be counted. All classes must be TECHNICAL and directly apply to the technicians SPECIALTY. The technician must provide documentation of the completed course. Approved documentation will be a certificate of completion; the certificate must include the following information:

1. Course hours
2. Contact information of the instructor
3. Short description of the class

The documentation of attendance for these classes will remain the technician's responsibility. Please retain all documents until it is time to submit information for recertification.

Providers can download a NATE Recognition form from NATE’s Information, Forms & Data page by clicking on the form, completing it to show how their course aligns with the knowledge base, and then they can fax, email, or mail it back to NATE upon completion.

Lapsed and Expired Certifications
A certification which passes its expiration date (which is five years from the date certification was first issued and is shown on the NATE ID wallet card) is lapsed or expired if the technician has not recertified before the SPECIALTY expiration date is reached. It is the technician’s responsibility to retain his wallet card and know when his certification is about to expire.

Technicians who let certification lapse and expire can only recertify by retesting, taking both the CORE and SPECIALTY tests again. The new certification will date from the time the technician passes the new tests.

Technicians whose certification have lapsed or expired are no longer NATE certified and cannot represent themselves as such. Any technician with an expired certification who represents himself as NATE-certified is behaving in a fraudulent and unethical fashion and could be denied future NATE certification in addition to other legal action.