Today’s economy presses us all to work more efficiently and promote our businesses at every opportunity. One method of self promotion is to advertise the fact that our technicians hold professional certifications.

There are several fire alarm certifications to choose from. The 2002 edition of NFPA 72’s National Fire Alarm Code lists several certifications to proving qualification and experience such as being certified in fire alarm systems from the International Municipal Signaling Association (IMSA) and the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET). Also acceptable is factory trained and certified, state licensed and personnel certified by a nationally recognized testing laboratory. Requirements for all of these certifications vary greatly and it is important to identify all of these methods of compliance.

The list of ‘qualified and experienced’ requirements in NFPA 72 presents dissimilar ways of showing compliance. The first option states “personnel who are factory trained and certified for fire alarm system service of the specific type and brand of system.” In addition, NFPA 72 then adds, “factory training and certification is intended to allow an individual to service equipment only for which he or she has specific brand and model training.” Yet, no experience is required of this method and it is also the easiest to acquire.

A second method mentioned in NFPA 72 of proving yourself to be ‘qualified and experienced’ was to have your company become a customer of the Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory’s (NRTL) certification service (think UL or FM) and get listed in the directory they publish. This is what, “personnel who are employed and qualified by an organization listed by a nationally recognized testing laboratory for the servicing of fire alarm systems,” implies. It is still unclear to me how a technician could automatically become qualified and experienced simply because the company they work for becomes (UL/FM) listed, especially since NFPA 72 doesn’t even attempt to offer any explanation in their annex for this compliance method. (I’m now left to picture a technician-fairy, pulling with flourish from her tool belt, a magic wand which she uses to strike knowledge and experience into a tech’s head upon their employer’s name appearing on a list of businesses meeting the listing program’s requirements.)