The Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS) is pleased to announce that it has approved continuing education requirements for licensed construction supervisors and is now accepting applications for Course Coordinators and Course approvals. The next several months will be dedicated to reviewing approving\denying applications submitted. July 1, 2011 is the line of demarcation for licensees to comply with education requirements as established below.
- Licensees who renew a license or are issued a first-time license on or after July 1, 2011 shall be expected to fully comply with education requirements following a full two-year cycle or elongated first-time license cycle (a first-time license cycle may extend beyond two years depending on the licensees birth date).
- Licensees who renew or are issued a first-time license prior to July 1, 2011 will be on a different schedule. Please see examples below for clarity.
Example No. 1: John Smith renews his license on July 1, 2011. He next renews on July 1, 2013. Is he required to comply with continuing education requirements? Yes, because a full two-years has passed since his last renewal.
Example No. 2: John Smith renews his license on June 30, 2011. He next renews on June 30, 2013. Is he required to comply with continuing education requirements? No, a full two-year cycle has not been completed since the July 1, 2011 implementation date. He then renews on June 30, 2015, is he required to comply with continuing education requirements? Yes.
Click to acquire the required Applications.
For those who may not be familiar, the legislature recently authorized the BBRS to approve continuing education requirements for construction supervisor licensees. The empowering legislation establishes a Continuing Education Council whose members are charged with developing continuing education requirements. Rather than reinvent the wheel, council members looked towards other states for guidance in developing requirements for the commonwealth. After reviewing procedures already in place in several other states, council members agreed to use Minnesota continuing education requirements as the model for Massachusetts.
Over the last several months, council members reviewed Minnesota requirements, word by word, line by line modifying their regulations to suit Massachusetts' needs. Conceptually, the proposed regulations work as follows:
A licensed construction supervisor must acquire a certain number of continuing education hours each 2 year renewal period based upon license category as identified below.
Unrestricted Construction Supervisors License 12 Hours
Restricted Construction Supervisors License 10 Hours
Specialty Construction Supervisors License 6 Hours
Masonry
Roofing
Windows / Siding
Demolition
Burning Fuel
Insulation
Courses and course coordinators are required to be approved by the BBRS in order to convene continuing education classes.
A licensee will have a host of methods available to choose from to achieve compliance.
A local technical college, for example, may apply for and receive approval to act as a course coordinator, and then provide varied courses presented by instructors approved by the program regulations as part of their ongoing continuing education program.
Home builder associations may also apply for and receive approval as a coordinator and then hire approved instructors to present material as part of their regular monthly meetings as a service to their membership.
This is just a taste of what is intended by the proposed regulations. Please review the proposed regulations in their entirety at the following link
780 CMR R5 
. Continuing education criterion appears towards the end of the regulation under section 780 CMR R5.4.
Please see instructions (create link to instructions and applications) as to how to file for approval in the program. Please read the regulations, filing instructions and associated applications carefully. It is hoped that this information is clear. If not, please return as message to the appropriate person as directed by the filing instructions.