WCA is creating a national passport program to provide a portable credential for individuals in the woodwork industry to quantify and qualify their ability to operate woodwork tools properly and safely to create high quality wood products. When fully operational, there will be hundreds of skill certifications/passport stamps with up to 3 levels of achievement for each operation. Certifications will not be tied to specific occupations or jobs. Rather, WCA will provide a menu of certifications from which employers can select the tools and tool operation level relevant to their jobs or training needs.
The passport program will be rolled out in stages beginning in 2010 and being fully operational in 2013. A WCA Passport will be similar to a U.S. Passport - a tangible booklet with pages on which to obtain "tool" stamps, like country stamps, that verify the individual's tool proficiencies allowing them to "document their travels". WCA will maintain a national database of passport holders and their tool stamps and verify passports during travel to new jobs and/or training.
Woodworkers will receive passport stamps through a performance assessment that will be fair, defensible, clear, teachable, and electronic. A woodworker's skills and knowledge will be assessed by a WCA Skill Evaluator who will observe the candidate as he/she uses a tool and then inspect the final product, ensuring that the woodworker's technique and product complies with WCA standards. Skill Evaluators will record and submit their evaluations to WCA electronically and issue the appropriate stamp in the Woodwork Passport.
Skill Evaluators can represent a can represent a state, a local area, a training institution, a profit or non-profit organization, or an individual company. Chief Evaluators will certify the skills and knowledge of the Skill Evaluators and grant them the authority to issue the appropriate passport stamps. Skill Evaluators will then have the authority to evaluate woodworkers on the tools for which they themselves hold certifications/stamps. WCA's goal is to have the first group of Skill Evaluators in place by 2012.