ANSI Accredits Blue C, LLC, dba HVACRedu.net, under ANSI-CAP

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a private non-profit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment systems, is pleased to announce that Blue C, LLC has been accredited under the ANSI Certificate Accreditation Program, or ANSI-CAP.

Blue C, LLC is a professional organization of HVACR educators working together to provide challenging and comprehensive online assessments, reviews, courses, and programs for the HVACR industry. The ANSI accreditation has been awarded to Blue C's HVACR 4-Year Apprenticeship Program.

"ANSI commends Blue C for achieving accreditation under ANSI-CAP and demonstrating their commitment to the continual improvement of their certificate programs," said Lane Hallenbeck, ANSI vice president of accreditation services. "Accreditation under ANSI-CAP helps to assure integrity and consistency within the credentialing field, and helps to bolster a more robust and qualified workforce. Blue C now has a concrete way to show students and customers that its certificates represent the best in quality education and training."

Launched in 2009, ANSI-CAP accredits organizations that issue education and training certificates to the U.S. workforce. The program is the first of its kind to offer a formal, third-party process for review and recognition of quality certificate programs. ANSI-CAP provides neutral, third-party attestation that a given certificate program meets ASTM E2659-09, Standard Practice for Certificate Programs, an American National Standard developed by ASTM International. By demonstrating compliance to this standard, accredited certificate programs further the development of a well-educated and qualified workforce, a chief goal of the Obama Administration.

ANSI-CAP also provides quality benchmarks for the design of future certificate programs. With these benchmarks, workers and employers are better able to determine the value and meaning of training and educational certificates, helping to boost the overall quality of the American workforce.

"This has been a grass roots effort since we started," said Chris Compton, CEO at Blue C. "We now have the only ANSI accredited HVACR Technician Apprenticeship Related Training Program in the World! It's also worth mentioning that it's the only online program. Now we have both ANSI and HVAC Excellence Accreditations which serve as monuments for our hard work. Achieving this level of accreditation should leverage decision makers at all levels to recognize that online for the trades occupations is a worthwhile endeavor and a significant tool to be used to keep our workforce in top notch condition in a very efficient and timely way.

"This is important to our country! Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning is the second largest consumer of energy in our nation. HVAC is THE top level target identified by the DOE and National Utility providers as the highest priority in our struggle for energy independence. The key objective to achieve that difficult goal is educating the existing workforce and new entry level technicians to perform their tasks to industry standards," continued Mr. Compton.

Information about HVACRedu.net's online educational offerings for the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Quality Installation/Quality Maintenance, and Building Performance industries is available at www.hvacredu.net; email: [email protected], or phone: 888-655-4822.

ANSI Accredits Blue C, LLC

ANSI-CAP follows the accreditation process outlined in the international standard ISO/IEC 17011, General Requirements for Accreditation Bodies Accrediting Conformity Assessment Bodies. This process includes using specially trained assessors to review documents submitted by applicants against defined requirements, conduct on-site assessments, and make recommendations to the ANSI-CAP Accreditation Committee that is responsible for making the accreditation decisions.

There are currently fifteen organizations that have received accreditation under ANSI-CAP.

Questions about ANSI-CAP can be directed to Turan Ayvaz, program manager, Certificate Accreditation Program ([email protected]; 202.331.3635).

About ANSI

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide.

The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

SOURCE American National Standards Institute