Two students from Wyandotte County at Kansas State University have earned concrete technician certification following completion of coursework and successfully passing an exam.
Christopher Betzen, senior in construction science and management, Bonner Springs; and Alexis Susunaga, senior in construction science and management, Kansas City, Kansas, received tilt-up concrete technician certification following completion of coursework and passing an exam administered by the American Concrete Institute, according to a K-State news release.
The two students are from the G.E. Johnson Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science at K-State’s Carl R. Ice College of Engineering.
Students earned the certification by demonstrating an understanding of safety, plan reading, scheduling, site preparation and foundations, slabs on grade, layout, forming, concrete properties and placement, erection and structural systems for producing tilt-up projects.
Tilt-up is a construction technique for casting concrete elements in a horizontal position at the job site and then tilting them to their final position in a structure.
The group of students completing the exam took the course Tilt-up Concrete Construction, which was developed and taught by Kimberly Waggle Kramer, professor and G.E. Johnson construction science chair in architectural engineering and construction science.
“Construction companies performing this type of construction are required to have a certified technician on the job,” Kramer said. “K-State has helped to triple the number of technicians in Kansas throughout the last several years, as well as helped to certify the first two female tilt-up concrete technicians in the nation. This year, 18% of the students are female, while according to the National Association of Women in Construction, women working in the construction industry numbered 1.5% of the entire U.S. workforce.”
In 17 years, more than 450 students have taken Kramer’s course and nearly all of them have become certified as tilt-up technicians with a 99.8% pass rate.