Utility Management Certification

The Utility Management Certification (UMC) course listed below has been approved by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Operator Certification Program to meet the management requirement to take the Class "A" Drinking Water/Wastewater and Class "1" Water Distribution Examinations.

The Course is the first credential to acknowledge an operator’s expertise in managing a water or wastewater utility. The UMC has become a standard for recognizing management expertise and advancement potential. 

Utility employees have used the UMC as a way to advance from field work into management. The certification has also become an important tool for water professionals seeking promotions and raises, since the certification recognizes experiences and accomplishments that may not be obvious to non-water professionals serving on boards and councils. 

UMC continues to grow daily, influencing the future of the water and wastewater industry while recognizing outstanding achievements in Utility Management.  As the workforce shortage continues to magnify, competition and higher salary levels will follow. Your UMC designation establishes your credentials as the best of the best! 

The roadmap below shows the journey Water Professionals must complete to obtain their Utility Management Certification. To enroll, you must meet the eligibility requirements listed in the course dashboard. Once you enroll and the exam is passed, you will receive a certificate of completion. In three years, you will be eligible for renewal through WaterPro Academy.

The UMC process costs $300 and includes an electronic study guide as well as the application fee to take the exam.  

To begin you must register/open account. Select Utility Management Certification as the Branch and choose Florida as their State affiliation.

From that point you will land on the NRWA Learner Dashboard. From the dashboard, you will be able to learn more about the UMC by clicking More Information or you can click on the UMC Application card to start the application process.

The application process includes questions which will accumulate points. You will need 100 points to be eligible to enroll in the course. The points are determined by levels of the following criteria:

  • Education
  • Experience at a water/wastewater utility
  • Certifications
  • Licenses
  • Previous training

Once the application has been completed, you will be prompted to upload proof of formal education, training hours received, proof of license/certificates. Once you upload this information, the data will be reviewed by the National Rural Water Association. This is not an instantaneous process and may take a while to process the information. Once the information is review and approved, you will be notified by email.  

At that point you can go to the UMC Exam course, pay for the course that includes the updated UMC Study guide and download the study guide.  You can then study the information and when you feel ready to take the exam, you can log back into your WaterPro Academy account and click on the UMC Exam course and take the exam from there. You will have 2 attempts to pass with a score of 70% or higher to pass.

Once you pass the exam, from your dashboard, you can click on MY ACTIVITIES and then COURSES and it will show you the courses you have passed and allow you to print your certificate.

For more information, click here.  If you need more information or have questions, please email training@waterproacademy.org.