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Gold Seal Certification program is changing

The Gold Seal Certification program certifies estimators, foremen, owner’s construction managers, project managers, safety practitioners and superintendents working in, or with, Canada’s non-residential construction industry. When you earn your Gold Seal Certified (GSC) or Professional, Gold Seal Certified (P.GSC) credential, you demonstrate excellence through certified experience and nationally-recognized validation of your skills, competence and knowledge.

Application framework and new tools

Starting on March 13, 2021, all applicants will enroll into the Gold Seal program at $425 plus applicable taxes and be approved as Gold Seal Interns (GSI), giving them up to five years to meet the Gold Seal Certified (GSC) application requirements and challenge the Gold Seal exam. The same minimum requirements apply as previously for the Gold Seal Intern applications (one year of Canadian experience in the designation or two years in an assistant’s role directly related to the designation).

Applicants enrolling into the program will be able to take advantage of new tools to identify the areas that they should get training on to maximize their chances of passing the exam as well as to estimate their credits to know whether they are ready to apply for their GSC. When the applicant meets the GSC requirements, they can fill out a GSC application for $100 plus applicable taxes. Approved applicants can book an exam within a year from GSC application approval for $125 plus applicable taxes.

Those existing applicants who applied as GSIs and were approved as such before March 12, 2021 will have a special form to submit their GSC application for $525 plus applicable taxes. Those applicants who applied as GSCs but were approved as GSIs as an intermediary step can submit their applications for final review free of charge. There are no changes to our highest level of the certification, the P.GSC credential.

New ethics course

A new, consolidated Construction Industry Ethics course will be available starting in April 2021. It will replace the requirement for the online and in-class/virtual portions of the course. Once the course is launched, new applicants will be required to take the revised course. Applicants who took the previous online and in-class/virtual courses will be given the same number of credits and they will not be required to take the new course. However, if applicants are missing either of the original courses (online or in-class/virtual portion), they will be required to take the new course. The Canadian Construction Association’s local partner associations sell both the original and new ethics courses.

Other planned changes

The Gold Seal directory of certificate holders has been offline for a few years. We look forward to listing active GSIs, GSCs and P.GSCs on our website later this spring. Certificate holders can grant or deny their consent at bit.ly/Consent2List.

The Gold Seal Certification program, a committee of the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), will adopt CCA’s branding later this year which means changes to the certificates. We will make a digital copy of the new certificate, which will also feature a certification number, available for all certificate holders. To ensure that we can contact you, update your contact information at bit.ly/UpdateGSContact.

Get a head start on your application

This is a perfect time to learn more about the program and to see if you qualify. Visit the Gold Seal website to register for our monthly webinar, review requirements and to read up on the exam. The occupational profiles and sample questions can be found on the Gold Seal exam page. The Gold Seal team is only an email away if you have any questions – let us know at goldseal@cca-acc.com!