Education

[FONT=Arial]Ladies and Gentlemen, I am conducting a poll of NACHI members to see how many of you have college degrees, and are they in an area of study related to inspection / construction? I’m just curious, as the new licensing law in effect in Texas as of 1 Jan 2005 requires 1 full year of school just to take the professional inspector occupational examination (if you use the educational waver method to get your professional license) 488 class room hours is a lot of study to be a home inspector! I am wondering how long before some States begin to mandate a 2 year junior college degree in a related area of study? Any comments or opinions are welcome. [/FONT]

My grandmother, wisest woman I have ever met, finished first grade. :smiley:

One full year of college for me in one course certainly did not equate to 488 hours. Presuming a 50-minute class or MWF for 18 weeks for both fall and spring semesters got me to about 90 hours (Monday holidays, Spring break, Thanksgiving, Winter break, etc.). Then, perhaps, add in daily 50-minute classes for two summer sessions adds another 50 hours or so. That’s 140 hours, plus or minus.

So if I took 18 credit hours each semester, that would put me waaaaaaay above 488 hours. How did you (or they) come up with that number? Are you going to be required to go to school 8 hours a day for 61 days, 4 hours a day for 122 days, two hours a day for 244 days, one hour a day for 488 days until you get 488 hours?

But for the record, I have a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from Texas A&M University. Special interests (read, unrecognized minors–Texas A&M doesn’t have minors) in organic chemistry, wood engineering, structural engineering, civil engineering, and, of course, the requisite taste testing courses (pizza, beer, jalapenos, nachos, Mexican food, and–don’t even think I would leave it out–margaritas :smiley: ).

Well you know, Texas is like a whole other country! Maybe it’s the metric system…? I’m not sure how the state of Texas figured out the hour requirement to obtain a professional inspector license using the education waver method. But the USAF Education Center awarded me 30 credit hours for all the schooling the state of Texas required to take… Just to get my foot in the State’s occupational license test center door.

I guess it was pretty close a full year of school, as far as effort is concerned. I wanted to start from scratch, so to speak, and I studied pretty hard about 3 days per week for about 3 or 4 hours per session, and it took me close to 10 full months to compete all the required courses. So accounting for the typical spring and summer breaks, it does come close to equaling about a year of college… And I am a rocket scientist as well… I worked on Minuteman III ICBM missile launch systems for over a decade. I also stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night lol….:stuck_out_tongue:

I guess I was not so clear in my original post…:frowning: but I figure that an Associate Degree is normally about 64 credit hours total, and that normally takes a full time student two years to obtain. And proportionally, a 4 year degree is about 120 credits, or so, and so I figure it sort of breaks down that 30 credit hours per year is, well… 1 year for the typical full time student at a traditional university.:roll: I guess that is how my noggin calculated it all out. The Air Force converted 488 class room hours into 30 credit hours for tuition assistance stuff, and that cross checked with the human effort and time applied to finish the courses.

I have three different Associate of Science degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Construction Technology and Aeronautical Operations. I was just curious to see basic educational backgrounds of NACHI inspectors around the country.

Ummmm Beer and Pizza…:D… and not getting shot at in Iraq… I love this inspection life, and so does my wife…:wink:

Cpetty at accurate Home Inspection of atlanta.I have an associates degree in criminal justice but decided to work toward what I like best.I worked in construction first roofing and then heating a & air then decided to go to school for home inspections.I took a 12 month course and have continue my education in marketing and structual designs.I really like the business.:smiley:

Cortland,
I find this incredible but am not surprised. I am retired military and have some college but nothing to do with home inspections. I chose to attend various trade schools offered at the local Techincal school (used my GI bill) They offer a complete program of all the various disciplines in the construction industry. Commercial / Residential Carpentry, Comm/Residential Plumbing, Comm/Residential HVAC and Comm/Residential Electrical and at one time offered Masonry. I took all of them but the Masonry. Each was 1800 hours until the last year then someone in Florida figured out or found out there was something called “Core Training” In other words you didn’t need to take math over each time, because math is math. Then most of programs were reduced to around 1250 to 1500 hours each depending on the depth of the course. Took about 4 1/2 years to do them all but I didn’t waste my time learning a lot of theory without any hands on. The local college offers an almost identical program but has no hands on. You end up with a degree in one and you end up knowing what in the hell you are doing or looking at in the other. I had no intentions of becoming a contractor as I was already doing home inspections and going to school full time. It is funny because every state keeps trying to fit the HI into a certain size hole and none of them seems to work. I do not think most people writing the laws or the regulations really know or understand what a HI is or what we really do. That is our fault. Oh yeah, I had already taken a full home inspector course while still on active duty and quickly realized afterwards that I knew a lot more than I did but I didn’t know everything I needed to know. That’s why I enrolled in Tech school, that and it is a State recognized and approved curriculum with “certificates” if you are one of the guys that prizes them. There are some of those lurking about.

Post graduate education in this field may be the future baseline for the sector. Studies done over the past year indicate the ideal candidate is a college techie grad such as you have described with specilaization in Home Inspection. Like it or not it seems the bar is slowly rising to help change this into a truely recognized “profession”.

Here is one such college that I teach several courses for.
http://www.humber.ca/faq/31531.htm#q315311

Interseting question Cortland. Start a new thread and add the pool option to it. 2 yrs at JC, learned to weld underwater a long time ago.

I have two post graduate degrees. The point about a college education is not so much the subject you study, but that you have learned how to study, how to teach yourself. This is important.

It also helps to demonstrate that you have the necessary discipline to be able to teach yourself and that you know the value of life long learning.

My wife flunked out of college, but she is a heck of a lot smarter than I am. She can (and does) to integral calculus in her head and can figure numbers by herslef faster that I can on a calculator. It may be talent or it may be drive. For me, math was always a battle. For her it is not.

Many factors go into being ‘edumicated proper’. I know of many people who went to Ivy League universities and have advanced degrees and all sorts of kudos from others, yet they are complete fools and consistantly choose to not think clearly.

Yet, a high school dropout that I know speaks, reads and writes 7 languages (including Hebrew and Chinese, both Cantonese and Manderin). He can just look at a crown molding corner and, free hand with a dovetail saw, cut the angle perfectly. He can argue philosophy with the best of them and did an emergency trachiostomy, right before my eyes, and saved a coworker. He is a history encyclopedia and tutors AP calculus to honor students after school. He also dresses and looks like a skid row bum.

Hope this helps.

Hope this helps.

I started in Architecture at Auburn. Moved to Engineering, then to Building and Construction then graduated with a degree in Business. I have a 4.0 in all my Building Courses does that count ? I’ve built single and multiple family homes and commercial properties. I drafted when you actually pushed a pencil, marketed, sold and supervised construction projects across the country.

Hi to all,

I hold a degree in an unrelated field myself, but also I grew up in a construction related business (from the age of 13). I have also been tteaching home inspectors for the last 5 years or so.

I applaude the rizing standards within our industry especialy as they relate to education, however I think the TREC rules are a little over the top. I previously have taught courses in excess of 140 hours, and this enabled students to pass the NHIE exam.

Is that all that should be required? no I don’t think so, but a 2 year degree for this field?? I think that is overkill.

I personally feel that, maybe 200 hours could be warranted, but I also feel that hands on training via ride alongs should be required, as ours is a practical skill rather than an academic one.

Regards

Gerry

Yahoo Gerry, I know exactly where you are coming from.

Thank you for the compliment. ha. ha. or Am I listening to myself. ha.

Marcel

Five years owner/manager/installer~ All American Auto Glass
BS~Nursing(two years. Two more to complete.)
AA Paralegal (Fall 2006)
Certificate~HomeInspection (Spring 2006)

BS Marine Nuclear Science, NY Maritime College; USCG Licensed Marine Engineer; MBA - Houston Baptist University. Waaaay too far back to remember.

Spent many years industrial equipment engineering, manufacturing, Industrial Inspections and troubleshooting rotating machinery. Got tired of traveling - began home inspecting to stay home. Worked a few weeks with a L.I. buddy inspector to get the hang of inspecting homes; began marketing and started a new career - should have done it 15 years earlier. - Russel might be working for my national franchise company, if I had.

TG

Over 40 years training to be Home Inspector. I didn’t know it at the time,
that’s just how it turned out.

I don’t think anyone grows up wanting to be an HI, but that’s where we’ve
all ended up, isn’t it?

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Texas Tech University.
Navy Nuclear Power School.
Four years on nuclear powered submarine.
9 years as a process engineer at 3M Company.
3 1/2 years as a home inspector.

Favorite job so far???

Working for myself inspecting homes!!!

Double BS in Civil Engineering & Electrical Engineering, but for the most part, all 5 1/2 years have not helped me as much as the 17 years in the field. I worked many years in construction as an electrician for the IBEW, but didn’t learn about the scary things i’ve seen in some homes until I exposed myself to home inspections.

13 years of full time home inspections has been the most enlightening education i’ve had, along with learning from the various tradesmen in my path along the way. I really don’t think it takes a college degree to do this, but it beats the certification most states require :).

Our industry is looking up :slight_smile:

Ha! Not even. I should have started 30 years earlier. :smiley:

B.S. degree in Industrial Technologies with construction emphasis and minor in Business. Six years in commercial facilities maintenance, construction management and project management.

Licensed in Texas as Professional Inspector.

Hey guys:
About 90 hours of undergraduate study at University of NE, Omaha, Never finished school. Was sent to FDA school for two weeks when I was an with ITT Continental Baking Co. (Wonder Bread/Hostess Cake). Was responsible for all the food products we manufactured and shipped for over 15 years, which included compliance with all the FDA GMP’s and regular visits by FDA field inspectors, and local county and military health regulators over that course of time. My corporate boss had 2 PHDs, one in Chemistry, one in Microbiology, and was one of the sharpest guys in the world, but very ‘hands-on’, and I owe the world to him when it comes to the opportunities/education offerred to me when I worked for him. I like the idea of licensing (none in NE yet), and I think the more we can learn the better inspectors we can become, but I think all the years of doing intensified, physical inspections in my 350,000 sf. food plant really helped guide me to where I have been the last 6 years-a happy, hard-working, h.i…:wink:

Tim Brown,
AAHI Inc.

WOW!! Compared to you guys, I’m feeling very under-educated. 2 year degree in an unrelated field, but grew up working for the family business-plumbing, heating, electrical contracting. Installed my first complete heating system (hot water) at age 15. Spent every summer from the age of 12 working in the business, then went full time after college (minus a teeny bit of time working for my Uncle Sam:mrgreen: ). Full time contracting for six years, then went into sales of bldg. supplies, went to kitchen design school, opened a kitchen and bath shop (designed, installed, remodeled, rebuilt, plumbed, wired, all hands-on).
The HI business felt like a logical progression, allowing me to use my experience in a constructive and hopefully, profitable way.
I agree that education is important for any HI, but if it is not accompanied by some hands-on experience, it probably isn’t enough. In my experience, the worst designers, architects, engineers, etc. are those who haven’t ever had to install, erect, or service their own “ideas.”
I really am impressed by the credentials of the other posters on this thread, and look forward to learning more from you all every day!:slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: