The National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) was recently named a Registered Provider for The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Continuing Education
The National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) was recently named a Registered Provider for The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Continuing Education Systems (CES) program. The designation enables NPCA to develop a new series of educational courses on architectural topics. NPCA will conduct its first architecture educational course Feb. 24 in Anaheim, Calif., during 2006 Manufactured Concrete Products Exposition (note companion item, page 14). Titled Precast Concrete: The Architects’ Solution, the two-hour introductory session will cover the fundamentals of precast concrete production and explore the various benefits of precast from the architect, owner and contractor’s perspectives.
The group currently conducts hundreds of hours of industry-specific educational courses each year in production, management, quality and safety, and has developed its own Production and Quality School covering concrete production fundamentals. NPCA has also created an Executive Management Series of courses to address leadership issues in the industry.
The AIA/CES designation is a tremendous achievement because it gives NPCA an unbiased, third-party quality stamp of approval, notes NPCA Education Committee Chair Lynette Gainey-Lobell (Gainey’s Concrete Products, Holden, La.). This confirms the association’s ability to design and create meaningful and pertinent coursework and to showcase it to the more than 75,000 members of AIA. Gainey-Lobell served as a member of NPCA’s AIA Education Task Force. Chaired by Cresset Chemical Vice President Mike Baty, the task force was charged with surveying AIA members to determine their educational needs and developing course curriculum.