Registry Tutorials

We are excited to announce the New WCA Registry! 

The WCA Registry our central database where all candidate records are stored. Candidate records include earned credentials, test scores, experience hours, and assessment history. Candidates can access the registry to see their progress towards credentials and take quizzes, and evaluators and administrators use it to manage their WCA memberships, enroll students, and purchase assessment credits. Evaluators also use it to record assessment data for candidates.

Our new Registry, being introduced summer of 2026, has been re-written from the ground up and is designed to be much faster and more responsive than the old one it is replacing in addition to providing increased functionality. Below is a list of changes and improvements to the new Registry. Please read whether you are new to the WCA or a returning member as a number of things have changed from the old Registry to the new.

Important Piece of Information: It is important to remember that 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. And, every candidate that is to be assessed 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…

What’s New:

• We have added the concept of an Organization Administrator (Org 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.
• There is now the ability to create a District/Company as well as a School/Location.  This is appropriate for a school district that has multiple schools enrolled in the WCA or a Company that has multiple locations participating. It allows you to have a Org Admin at the district or company level that centrally purchases memberships, credits, etc. that then go into a pool at the district level. The Org Admin can then distribute the memberships and credits to the appropriate evaluator at each school or location. If there you are the only school in a district that will ever participate, for example, there is no need to create a district.
• Tighter integration. The new registry is much more tightly integrated with our website, woodworkcareer.org, and in fact, looks like just another page on our website. You will access the Registry from a link on the menu bar on our website.
• Single Sign On.  As in the old system, you will use the same email to log into our website and the new Registry, however, they use separate passwords. However, if you log into the website first, you are automatically logged into the Registry. If you are a returning WCA member, you will not already have a password for the new Registry, but if asked to login, you can use the forgot password function. Again, though, if you first log into our website, you shouldn’t need to separately log into the Registry.
• In Registry Purchasing. If you are new to the WCA and have never had a membership before, you will purchase it the first time using our Marketplace, however, after that you will do all of your renewals, individual membership, and credit purchases from within the Registry.
• Online Candidate Testing. All online candidate testing is now done from within the Registry which means the Registry knows when a candidate has completed ALL requirements for a credential unlike the old system where testing was done on a separate site. Once a candidate has passed the prerequisites, they will be notified that a test is available to take via email.
• Online Certificate Distribution. Once a candidate passes all the requirements for a credential, they can download the certificate as a PDF from their account in the Registry. This is available forever in case they lose their copy.
• Only Relevant Data. In the old Registry, when looking at the list of candidates, you saw every candidate in the country. Now, you will only see the organizations and candidates in your school or location; if you are an Org Admin for a district or company, you will see all organizations and candidates in the entire district or company.
• Better Reporting. It is easy to see at a glance on your dashboard which students are pending approval for a credential or who has taken a quiz and what their score was. It’s also easier to filter your candidates and create custom filters to group your students. For example, you can save a filter that shows students only from a given school year making it easier to assess your current students.