ANSI Presents NCCCO with Workforce Development Award

The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) received the newly created ANSI Workforce Development and Innovation Award at the 2019 ANSI Leadership and Service Awards Banquet and Ceremony last week in Washington, DC.

The award recognizes an accredited credentialing body that significantly impacts workforce development in the United States.

“The work of the honorees represents a tremendous scope of impact and requires true commitment – a willingness to put in long hours, traveling for days or weeks at a time, to get the work done,” said Russ Chaney, chair of the ANSI Board of Directors. “We pay tribute to the outstanding accomplishments of leaders in standards and conformance with the presentation of [these] awards.”

NCCCO CEO, Thom Sicklesteel, and NCCCO Foundation CEO, Graham Brent, jointly accepted the award.

NCCCO CEO, Thom Sicklesteel, said that NCCCO was delighted to receive the award. “Conferring of this award on NCCCO is a recognition of the efforts this organization has made over recent years to expand its activities into workforce development activities, as well as to engage entities already prominent in this field,” he said.

“Although the primary vision of NCCCO has been to help establish a global lifting environment in which crane and crane-related risks are reduced and overall safety enhanced,” said Graham Brent, founding CEO of NCCCO and now CEO of the NCCCO Foundation, “NCCCO has always shouldered a secondary (but no less important) responsibility: To improve the overall professionalism of the crane and rigging industry.” This translated, he said, into a desire to elevate the regard for the skill and knowledge required of a crane operator to the point where crane operation is considered not just a job, but a profession and, by extension, a career.

NCCCO CEO, Thom Sicklesteel (left), and NCCCO Foundation CEO, Graham Brent (right), seen here with NCCCO President, J. Kerry Hulse, jointly accepted the inaugural ANSI Leadership and Service Awards Banquet and Ceremony last week in Washington, DC.

Joining NCCCO in the award celebration were representatives from several prominent industry groups including: ACE Mentor Program; American National Standards Institute (ANSI); Associated Equipment Manufacturers (AEM); Association of Equipment Maintenance Professionals (AEMP); Associated General Contractors of America (AGC); Specialized Carriers & Rigging Foundation (SC&RF); and YouthBuild Philadelphia.

The ceremony was held in conjunction with World Standards Week 2019 in which the NCCCO Foundation’s CEO Brent participated as a panelist on The Future of the Standards Workforce which showcased the innovative ways in which the standards community is responding to various workforce challenges.