Recently, 42 representatives from across the North American glazing industry met in Hanover Maryland, to develop written and practical exams for the Architectural Glass and Metal Technician Certification (AGMT). Mark Longmore, Head glazing Instructor and Coordinator for the FTI was invited along with Paddy Byrne, Director of Training for the FTI, who is also a glazier by trade, to lend their expertise and be part of this historic undertaking.
Driven by numerous recent glazing failures on some extremely large commercial projects throughout Canada and the United States, industry got together to figure out how to best to address this multi million dollar problem. In the end it was decided by all those connected to the industry such as glazing contractors, caulking suppliers, aluminium extrusion manufacturers, fabrication companies, architects, engineers, spec writers, insulated glass suppliers and especially the insurance underwriting community, that the glazing industry needed a major overhaul.
The overhaul started with a new certification process for glazing contractors which has already been developed by, Administrative Management Systems Inc. (AMS), a recognized leader in product compliance testing and certification in the glass industry, headquartered in New York state. This program is currently being implemented in several major cities in the United States and Canada. However, once that part of the concern was addressed, it was decided that there needed to be a program developed across North America to address the skills of the workers who install these highly complex glazing facades. Administrative Management Services Inc. has also been selected to develop the AGMT certification.
In Canada we have the Red Seal which is recognized across our country as the standard in the industry for trade worker certification. However, the Red Seal is a written exam with no hands on component to the test. This is where the AGMT certification hopes to establish itself as the gold standard in the industry. In addition to a 125 question written exam, there will be a practical component involving curtainwall, storefront and door installation along with a caulking and tooling mock-up. Not only will AGMT certified glaziers be tested on knowledge of their trade but they will also have to demonstrate their competency with the hands on skills connected to the trade.
Beta testing is expected to begin sometime in the fall and there has been a target set of 100 glaziers to go through the testing protocol before the end of the year as part of the ANSI accreditation process.
Please check out the video below which gives a good overview of what this program will look like and why the industry is so excited about it.
