2020_ADN_V5_No3_web

IDA
COLUMN
IDA Marine
Certification
Sets Sail!
The IDA’s Newest Certification Program
Is Ready for its Maiden Voyage
By Erin Reyes, IDA
Communications Coordinator
It’s time to dive into the latest IDA
Certification – Marine!
That’s right, IDA Marine Certification
examinations are now available online.
This is the first specialty certification
that the IDA is introducing to its lineup
– with plans to eventually grow to include
individual certifications for motorcycles,
recreational vehicles, aircraft, and more.
The IDA Certification Committee
first decided to proceed with the marine
certification more than two years ago,
based on market demand and the availability
of volunteers willing to help move
the program forward.
“The Certification Committee is constantly
reviewing the current programs
and looking at future opportunities,” explained
Keith Duplessie, CD-SV, RT, former
IDA president and one of the leaders
of the marine certification project.
“There have been a number of potential
specialty accreditations discussed in recent
years, including marine. In 2018, the
committee established a task force to review
the feasibility of and process for the
program. Luckily, a great group of IDA
members with an interest in marine detailing
volunteered to do the heavy lifting
of implementing the program.”
Indeed, heavy lifting it was – the task
force essentially started from scratch to
pull the program together. First, they
needed to settle on the best categories
to build upon the foundational Phase I
– Certified Detailer (CD) exams, while
also making sure the new tests were marine-specific.
Then came the even harder
task – developing questions that would
accurately assess an individual’s marine
expertise while also keeping them generic
enough to apply to the variety of circumstances
and environments that marine
detailers face on the job. Lastly, they
made the decision to limit the certification
– at least for now – to written exams,
rather than including the additional level
of in-person skills validation (SV).
“We all came to the agreement that
we should have knowledge first and then
work on the skillset,” said task force member
and veteran marine detailer Parker
Richards. “If some are wondering why
there’s not an SV test right away, we had
all decided that it was important to build
a foundation [first] and then continue to
build on the skillset.”
The task force initially believed the
certification development process would
take no more than a year, but soon realized
that between busy work schedules
and all the necessary steps to build the
program properly, they could not rush the
timeline. Now, over two years later, the
program is finally ready, and they are glad
they took the time to do it the right way.
While they had hoped to launch the
program earlier this year in-person at
the Southern Detailers Conference in
Lexington, Kentucky, unfortunately the
event was cancelled due to limitations
on gatherings because of the pandemic.
Exams are available online now, but,
according to Duplessie, the task force is
hoping to move forward with their plans
to hold in-person exams at the 2021
Mobile Tech Expo in Orlando, Florida,
should the event go on as planned.
Knowing that there would be a lot
of interest in the program, along with
a lot of questions, the task force held a
webinar at the end of August to discuss
the exams and answer questions from
attendees. The live webinar had more
than 60 attendees interested in learning
more about the program. The webinar
recording is available on the IDA website
for members who were not able to
attend the live session and for those who
just want to re-watch the discussion for
additional insights.
One of the points the panelists emphasized
during the webinar is that those
considering taking the exams should be
well-versed in the intricacies of marine
detailing and understand the major differences
between it and other forms of
detailing, namely auto detailing.
“There is a lot of material here,”
Duplessie said, adding, “This is a very
focused area of detailing. It’s not rocket
science, but it is specific.”
Not only are there the obvious differences
between the actual vessels that are
being detailed, but there are also various
chemical, environmental, and safety factors
to consider, which auto detailers may
not even think about at first.
During the webinar, the task force
dove into the example of cross-contamination,
an issue that can arise when
a boat is transported from one lake to
4 | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | VOL. 5, NO. 3 • FALL 2020