RETA Breeze May-June 2022

600 recertified in 2021 by documenting training to renew their RETA credentials. These included 70% of the CIRO credential holders who reached their recertification deadlines last year. RETA submitted two years of performance data for the new CARO and CIRO exams in July 2007 to meet ANSI Standards. RETA also published the Ammonia Refrigeration Training Guideline with IIAR and IARW in 2007. The Guideline specified: 1. An entry level that requires skills that are still key elements of CARO today. • “Observe refrigeration system operations” • “Record pertinent operation parameters” • “Take control actions only under direct supervision of a supervisor or operational level personnel” 2. The “operational skill level” to supervise entry-level operators and the knowledge and skills needed to perform tasks that are still part of today’s CIRO requirements. • “Start and stop equipment” • “Adjust controls and actuate valves” • “Perform routine system maintenance” • “Assist in training entry level personnel” • “Perform system troubleshooting” 3. The “technical skill level” shown today by CRST, which requires personnel who: • “Have successfully performed at the Operational Level” • “Make decisions regarding operating strategies, setpoints and limits” • “Optimize system operations for improved cost and reliability” • “Schedule and/or perform major repairs and rebuilds” • “Recommend system upgrades and improvements” • “Perform system inspections and mechanical integrity checks” • “Participate extensively in the Process

Safety Management program” • “Oversee or inspect system construction/installation activities” • “Supervise Operational and Entry Level operators” • “Coordinate shutdowns and pumpdowns” CARO and CIRO earned ANSI accreditation in 2008; no other industrial refrigeration programs have ever met ANSI Standards. RETA added CRST to its programs in 2018 supported by a new edition of Industrial Refrigeration Book 3 (IR-3). RETA’s application to add CRST to ANSI-accredited industrial refrigeration credentials this year will be supported by nearly four years of CRST performance data. RETA’s Certification Committee has validated all RETA exams and testing policies since 2003. CertComm members average nearly 19 years of industry experience as end users, technicians, consultants, manufacturers and suppliers. They include members of 12 of RETA’s 49 Chapters from seven states. Industrial refrigeration trainers are excluded from CertComm because ANSI Standards require a strict firewall between certification and education to ensure fair, valid and secure examinations. RETA has updated CARO, CIRO and CRST test specifications multiple times with new surveys of industrial refrigeration operators, managers and technicians to document changes in technology and skill requirements at each level. The most recent surveys were for CIRO in 2019 and CRST in 2021. Current specifications for each test still closely parallel those in the 2007 Ammonia Refrigeration Training Guideline. Just as for those who initially earn, then recertify CARO, CIRO and CRST credentials, RETA must sustain efforts to meet the high demands of ANSI 17024 Standards. RETA must reapply for accreditation of its programs every five years and document how these standards are being met in annual reports. ANSI assessors cite deficiencies that must be corrected to maintain accreditation. These demands led

Microsoft and NATE among others to surrender their ANSI accreditations within a few years. An example of the demands of meeting ANSI Standards emerged in February 2022 when one of RETA’s assessors found test security violations in its online-proctored (OLP) testing. RETA added OLP testing in 2019 but suspended it in March 2022 due to these violations. In April, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) extended CARO and CIRO accreditation through March of 2023. RETA will explore whether it can resolve these security issues with other forms of remotely proctored testing after its application to add CRST to CARO and CIRO as ANAB-accredited programs is finished. Currently RETA exams are available again only in onsite-proctored test centers. RETA will begin a new five-year cycle in 2023 with a fresh team of ANSI assessors. Every aspect of RETA program design, leadership, test development, applicant processing, test administration, management systems, funding, and candidate support must be freshly documented in each five-year application. RETA’s three earlier five-year applications each required several hundred pages of documents to support how each program meets ANSI 17024 Standards. These steps help strengthen and maintain RETA’s position as the Gold Standard in Refrigeration Certification. RETA’s commitment is critical to protecting the health and safety of operators, all employees and the public in and near the industrial refrigeration facilities where RETA-certified personnel work.

We welcome your questions about RETA’s credentialing exams and activities. Send your questions by email to certification@reta.com.

Dr. Ron Rodgers, RETA’s Psychometrician (testing expert) and Accreditation Manager, has guided development of all RETA credentialing exams since 2002. RETA Testing Corner provides information and answers questions from RETA members, candidates and others to help them earn and benefit from RETA credentials.

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