Building excellence: Elevate your team’s industry knowledge with the National Frame Building Association’s certification program

By Anna Lockhart.  

The NFBA has launched their very own university-backed certification program designed to educate participants in the basics and latest innovations of post-frame construction in hopes of spotlighting post-frame buildings across the construction industries.  

The National Frame Building Association (NFBA) has launched their own frame-building curriculum, designed to educate both industry newcomers and established professionals on the basic principles of post-frame construction. This course educates participants on the basic terminologies, practices and design methods needed from common post-frame buildings.  

In an interview with Morgan Arwood, NFBA’s membership director, and Josh Nowlin, the NFBA’s secretary, they shared their inspiration behind founding the program and their hopes for its future. Morgan explained, “One of the things that is the biggest challenge in the post-frame industry is keeping a good workforce. Several years ago, the membership committee started to think about what we could do to help alleviate the problem, and we had a couple of builder members say, ‘Look, we’re here at local community colleges and trade schools. None of them have training focused on post-frame.’”  

“We thought it would be great to be able to create an actual curriculum designed in a trade school format, one that could be integrated into the current construction programs in place. From there, we started to develop the curriculum,” Morgan continued. Since then, in 2019, the program has become a reality. Partnering with the University of Missouri Extension, the NFBA has created a certification program designed for businesses and individuals to take at their own pace, in which they can gain the knowledge and expertise needed to practice basic post-frame construction and understand the latest industry standards.  

Participants can set their own pace, only having to take two required exams to pass the certification course, and the NFBA has even created their own study guide and textbook designed specifically for this program. It was important that this course provides students with everything they would need to succeed. “It was a big deal to us that the course information and material was correct and accurate in a way that was easy for people to comprehend. From the mathematics portion to the method of finding accurate measurements for the building foundation, we got pretty in depth,” Josh shared.  

Morgan explained that while some companies and their employees who signed up for the course have taken to training together in a classroom setting or on jobsites with the materials, some have chosen to self-guide themselves through the course using the online materials and lecture videos so that they can go at their own pace. "Partnering with Doctor Joe Zulovich through the University of Missouri Extension, we’ve just recently launched the entire online course so that anyone can participate from anywhere in the world,” Morgan explained. The curriculum is currently available in English, Ukranian, Russian and Polish. 

They hope that in the future, the program can be something the NFBA goes out into community colleges and trade schools to promote the integration of post-frame building into the standard construction curriculum. “We’ll be promoting the certification program at our upcoming tradeshow, to roll it out to our industry,” Josh shared.  

With the best interests of the post-frame industry in mind, the NFBA will be highlighting this new achievement and amazing opportunity at the 56th Annual NFBA Building Expo, which will take place in Des Moines, Iowa, March 6-8.  

Learn more about the new online NFBA certification program and curriculum!