The courses in this program are established at a college level and are primarily intended for First Nation participants. FORMAT: The courses have been
arranged into units of study that will help you acquire both
the general and technical knowledge to related to housing and inspection services. The program is
offered mainly on a “web-based platform” and provides both an introductory
overview as well as a greater depth of detailed study in the more advanced
courses.
The following core courses are offered in our current program of study:
General understanding regarding courses and content.
This is a 40 + hour building code course on Part 9 Housing designed as a pre-requisite education and training course for the NBC (National Building Code) of Canada for further face-to-face training.
This is a basic level estimating course focuses on construction estimating for residential construction. Participants will gain the knowledge and skills required to perform an estimate for a residential home through a series of estimating activities and a final project. All the skills and competencies attained in this course will assist those in the estimating sector to support and advance their estimating skills for the 2nd level of estimating.
This construction administration course focuses on practical applications and administration of construction contracts from the contractual viewpoint. Participants will learn about some of the contractual relationships found in the building industry and gain an understanding of the crucial role that a contract administrator plays in all construction projects.
This course is delivered through a series of system based topics that deals with home maintenance. The responsibility for housing upkeep and maintenance varies from community to community. All homes require maintenance and you may have to remind the occupants of its importance and a general knowledge and understanding of how some systems work. These may fall upon the occupants or a housing maintenance department. One of the key elements is helping to increase the lifespan of a home through periodic maintenance. This element is directly related to a proactive approach of putting into action the importance and value of general home maintenance.
This course
will begin with an overview of building inspections. The purpose of an
inspection is to ensure that work and or building conditions meet a specific
health and safety standard. The inspection topics will also include those
regulated by public law and regulation as well as those with respect with contractual requirements. The course will highlight the importance of conducting
inspections as well as recognizing risk and how to manage it.
This course focuses on the topic of dealing with contractors and project builds. The responsibility of a contractor in construction is the execution of the work activities that are required for the completion of the project. The roles and responsibilities of contractors may be slightly different from one project to another. Regarding construction projects, there are many different factors to consider. This course covers the important things to keep in mind when choosing a contractor for a construction project.
Procurement functions are about much more than bringing goods and services into an Indigenous community. It comes with huge expectations especially when you’re spending the community’s money. You need to operate transparently – dealing with dynamics of Chief and Council – all while navigating a web of procurement policies, procedures and legislation. This course focuses on the main principle of procurement, describe the key stages in the procurement cycle, and how to develop your own procurement policies and procedures.
This course is offered primarily as a self-directed online 16 hours of course content. It contains several periodically scheduled direct (webinar) instruction interactive video conferencing sessions. The primary focus is on construction drawing plan reviews and technical tools and reporting to assist with building inspections.
This course provides 4 hours of online video conferencing introducing the building code. The 4 hours of online delivery provides an introductory online understanding with navigating and using the National Building Code. This is followed up with 36 hours of practicum scheduled in class training. ACBOA’s NBC House training material will be utilized in this course along with a series of Part 9 NBC applications of the building code through a series of activities and hands-on learning exercises. At the later part of this course participants are provided with a building code exam that is based on prior building code exam questions with the intent of preparing participants with the familiarity of what to expect on a provincial based code exam.
Most Building Code programs are delivered with the understanding that participants come away with knowledge and skills on the Codes. This course will provide the participants with instructions on how to navigate the use of the Code books and where items are in the Code and how an inspector can and cannot enforce the Codes. A series of activities are provided to engage the participants in various house construction code issues to understand what standards apply in a set of circumstances.
The course is limited to detached housing, semidetached housing, town houses and row houses.
This course is the Manitoba code version and provides 40 hours of technical content from selected units of study for First Nation Housing related to the NBC (National Building Code of Canada). The course is delivered in an in-class setting. The intended audience includes contractors, housing managers, inspectors, and other interested technical support representatives.
The course content includes study modules that helps participants in finding, understanding, and applying the code requirements for housing. Questions and exercises are also provided to ensure reasonable benchmarks of understanding the technical nature of building code related to house construction. Successful course completion requires a minimum of 70% or better on a final course exam.
An exam is facilitated on the last day of class.
This course has been designed to enhance the knowledge of the Building Code in the area to gain competence in the practice of Part 9 - Health and Safety requirements in housing. This NBC Health and Safety course is based on providing course participants with an understanding of key building code requirements related to health and safety in housing.
This technical course has been designed to enable code practitioners to interpret and implement the principles of the Building Code during both the examination of plans and in the inspection of the health and safety components of the House.
The course is completed with an exam in which participants require a passing grade of 70% applicable for code certification.
This course has been designed to enhance the knowledge of the Building Code in the area to gain competence in the practice of Part 9 – Building Envelope requirements in housing. The NBC House Building Envelope course focuses on the critical details with regards to the environmental separation between the indoor and outdoor building elements.
The course provides participants with an introduction to the Building Code focusing on the perimeter building envelope including below-grade components, insulation requirements, air barrier, vapour barrier and exterior finishes.
The course is completed with an exam in which participants require a passing grade of 70% applicable for code certification.
This course provides the link between understanding construction drawings and basic knowledge of construction estimating.
This course primarily is actually a series of webinars and presentations regarding construction drawings and plan reviews. Additionally it also covers construction documents and steps for achieving better contract management.
This program will teach course participants learn how to plan, budget, manage and supervise a broad range of construction projects. It involves a series of courses that are both self-paced online prerequisites as well as 2 days of intensive in class learning that culminates in a final project case study.
Intro to the house-as-a-system. A house is much more than the four exterior walls and a roof. It is an interactive system made up of many components, structure, ventilation, and filtration. Each component impacts the performance of the entire system. Buildings perform in very predictable fashion. These performance characteristics are based on four simple principles of physics. Although solid design and building structure provides a good starting place for a healthy home, proper and ongoing maintenance is important for both interior and exterior components to function as designed.
Home inspectors are expected to recognize structural defects and have a basic understanding of the significance of structural concerns. The inspector may be required to refer to applicably codes and building standards to best understand how a structure is intended to perform. Although this is not a building code course, the content will cover various aspects to help the inspector recognize visual problems and clues and be able to help in mitigating concerns and where applicable offer remedial advise.
The course on building envelope (exterior) provides a basic understanding of the performance expectations in context to residential structures. Water, moisture and air infiltration are often the common enemy of maintaining good sound residential structures. The course content is intended to help inspectors and others understand the importance of the building envelope.
Plumbing is a very specialized field when it comes to maintaining water quality and waste water removal. An inspector must be able to understand the complexity and importance that plumbing requires to maintain healthy living conditions.
This heating course provides information regarding a wide range of heating systems. The information includes a variety of topics such as fuels, distribution of heat and basic heat loss. Typically inspectors are generalist and therefore this course provides general knowledge about the various systems.
Electrical systems is another very specialized and tightly regulated field. Local codes and installations can vary . Because electrical systems are very complex it is all about safety for the occupants as well as the home. The information in this course provides good basic information for understanding and reviewing residential electric systems.
Fire safety is also a specialized field. Because residential fire poses a potential life and safety concern to the home occupants inspectors must be aware of the fire safety concerns and understand the basics of reviewing for fire safety considerations. Some materials and conditions or lack of safety features can pose a high level of fire risk.
This course discusses the steps in the inspection of a building and suggests ways that may help to simplify or bring order to the work of the person assigned to carry out the on-site physical inspection and prepare a report on conditions found. This course also shows where the inspection function fits into the phases of the overall housing rehabilitation process, and provides a systematic approach to the physical inspection or problem analysis, and to the completion of the inspection assignment in accordance with the terms of reference of the project.
After
the inspection has been completed, there is often a need for further action on the part of the inspector.
Additional information to help the client to decide whether to proceed with the
project may be required. This course reviews various styles and practices to writing the inspection report.
This is a reference document that may be used for any of the courses.
