WCA Membership
Below you will find all the information you need to know about WCA Membership and how to become a member.
Please read all of the information below carefully before purchasing your membership to avoid any mistakes or misunderstandings.
Membership Renewals: If you have had a membership for your organization in the past and need to renew it, please click here to learn more about the new renewal process.
There are two ways to join the WCA; as an Individual or as an Organization.
An Individual Membership is a lifetime membership for teachers, students, or company employees who want to participate in the WCA certification process as either a candidate or as an Accredited Skill Evaluator (ASE). Students typically join through a WCA EDUcation member school and employees through a WCA MANufacturing member company, although either may also join as an individual not affiliated with a member school or company. Individual Memberships cost $55 and never need to be renewed. Learn more…
An Organizational Membership is for schools or companies who wish to credential their students or employees; the EDUcation Membership is a $250 yearly membership for schools that runs from July 1st – June 30th of each year. The MANufacturing Membership is a $250 yearly membership for companies good for one year from the date of purchase. Both memberships give organizations access to online training courses, training resources, and essential assessment documentation. EDUcation members also qualify for the Essentials Benefits Package.
Every organization, whether a school or a company, must have a current membership for their organization (either EDUcation or MANufacturing) in order to assess candidates and access training materials or other documents, otherwise known as the Member Resources. Organization members also enjoy free access to our new online training courses and, every candidate that is to be assessed, or Accredited Skill Evaluator (ASE) that will perform the assessments must have an Individual Membership purchased in their name.
VERY IMPORTANT: The organization’s membership must be in the name of person who will be accessing the member resources; this is typically the on staff evaluator…
On This Page:
Click any of the links below to jump directly to the content.
WCA Roles
The following describes the various roles in the WCA:
Candidate – A candidate is an individual who earns credentials by being assessed against the WCA Standards. Individuals become a candidate by purchasing and Individual Membership which is the entry point into the WCA system.
Evaluator – The heart of the WCA credentialing program is the Accredited Skill Evaluator (ASE). The ASE is responsible for performing skill evaluations for candidates who are pursuing their credential and can come from both industry and education. All potential ASE’s must first purchase an Individual Membership and complete Evaluator Training after their organization purchases either an EDU or MANufacturing membership. Click here to learn how to become an ASE.
Chief Evaluator – Have the same responsibilities as any Accredited Skill Evaluator. In addition, the Chiefs supervise the ASE’s in their region.
Organizational Admin – This is an optional role that allows someone in your organization who is not an Evaluator to administer the organization, such as renewing your EDU or MAN membership, purchasing Individual Memberships for students, or purchasing credits for the organization and distributing all of the above to the appropriate people. Basically, this person has all the same privileges as an Evaluator without the ability to evaluate candidates.
Organizations
An organization is generally either a school or a company. As mentioned above, schools will purchase an EDU membership and companies will purchase a MANufacturing membership. If there are multiple schools joining from a single district, you will setup a District when purchasing your EDU membership and then create each of the schools in the district that will be WCA members; they will automatically be assigned to the district you created. Similarly, with companies with multiple locations you will be asked to create an umbrella company, then as many locations as you like that will be WCA members in that company.
If you do create a District or an umbrella company, you will need to assign an Organizational Administrator to manage the District/Company, and an evaluator (or pending evaluator if they haven’t completed training) designated for each school or location. The Organizational Administrator of a district, for example, can do all the purchasing of memberships, credits, etc. centrally and distribute them to the schools/locations for the evaluators to administer. Each school can also have an Organizational Administrator assigned in addition to the evaluator.
Keep in mind that the organization’s membership for each school/location must be in the name of the evaluator at that location so they can access the member resources.
Purchasing Your Membership(s)
You will purchase your organization’s membership below in addition to any Individual Memberships you need for your pending evaluators for each organization.
Remember, you only purchase your memberships from this page the first time you ever become a WCA member; all additional Individual Memberships for your students or employees, additional assessment credits, and yearly membership renewals will be done from within the WCA Registry.
After completing your organization’s membership purchase, your pending evaluators should sign up for Evaluator Training, and any pending evaluators and organizational administrators must visit the Registry Tutorials page and watch the video on that page to learn how to navigate and use the Registry to manage your memberships, credits, and to assess your candidates.
To Purchase:
- Choose the appropriate membership below and select the quantity you need for the number of schools/locations you have and add it to your cart along with the number of Individual Memberships you need for the evaluators at each location.
- You will be led through the checkout process to complete the purchase.
- After completing the purchase, you will be led through the onboarding process where you will create a District or umbrella company (if applicable) and then you will create each of the schools or locations associated with the District or Company. If you are purchasing for a single school or location, you will skip the District/Company creation step.
- If you have purchased Individual Memberships, you will either be asked to invite your evaluators to claim their memberships if you are an Organizational Admin, or you will claim it for yourself if you are the pending evaluator.
- At the end, you will create a password for yourself and will be automatically logged into the Registry, also called the portal. At that point, you will need to visit the Registry Tutorial page to learn how to navigate and use the Registry.
- Feel free to contact us at info@woodworkcareer.org if you have any difficulty with your purchase or onboarding.
Only purchase your membership below if it’s your first time purchasing a WCA membership. Click here for renewals.
