WEF Operator Certification & Training Post-Summit Webinar

Thursday, June 30th, 2011
1:30pm to 2:30pm Eastern Time

This webinar will summarize the discussions and final outcomes from the Summit.

 Click here to register  

About the Summit

This Summit culminates a year of unprecedented activity on operations issues within the Water Environment Federation (WEF) through our Operator Initiative. This is a multilevel effort to address wastewater operator professional needs and issues and involves members of WEF’s Board of Trustees, House of Delegates, and various Committees with the support of a staff team.

Based on feedback we received from 2009/2010 surveys and discussions during a session at WEFTEC2010 in New Orleans, the core areas of concern for operators are education and training, certification, and overall professional recognition. Some of the steps WEF has already taken to address these concerns include:

• The development of an on-line Operations Resource Center (http://www.wef.org/OperationsResources/). This center provides links to certification, training, and technical resources, and also networking opportunities.
• In partnership with AWWA, continual updates of www.workforwater.org.
• Through an ongoing pilot program, collaborating with MAs on the development and sharing of content for operator training materials.  
• Updating WEF’s current Wastewater Operations Certification and Training Position Statement. This May WEF’s Board is expected to approve the revised position statement. 

The objective of this Summit is to convene representatives from key organizations (including Member Associations, the Association of Boards of Certification, Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, etc.) to discuss and develop a plan of action to:

• Establish a higher professional position for water quality operators which would include promoting the value of certified professionals;
• Encourage consistency within operator certification requirements and training; and
• Understand the roles of each organization and how we can work together to achieve our common goals.

The one and a half day Summit was held at the Crowne Plaza in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, from Thursday, June 23rd to Friday, June 24th, 2011. The first day of the Summit consists of summarizing the state of the industry and then working on identifying strategies for three distinct topics: sustainability of wastewater operator certification programs, national minimum standards for operators, and nationally recognized professional designation for operators. The next morning the Summit concluded with the final APEX (action plan for execution) which includes next steps to move forward.

For any questions or comments, contact Christine Radke at 703-684-2400, ext. 7013 or cradke@wef.org.