NATE Certification Programs

The first group of courses make up the Ready To Work Program and includes all the basics of beginning a career in HVAC. Successfully completing this online HVAC NATE Certification program with a grade of 70% or more provides you with your OSHA 10 hour safety card (included); prepares and provides you with your first NATE Ready-to-Work (RTW) Certificate Exam (included). This exam is not a proctored exam; and is optional. You can take the RTW exam on the NATE web site (it comes with a PDF study guide) right from your own computer.

There are no prerequisites. Successfully completing this program with a grade of 70% or more provides you with your OSHA 10 hour safety card (included); prepares and provides you with your first NATE Ready-to-Work (RTW) Certificate Exam (included).

But this series doesn’t end there – we’re just getting started – When you choose to continue into Step 2, it will train you for the NATE CORE knowledge areas, including the needed fundamentals. You have access to a Service Core Review and 30 days access to TekAssist again, where you can practice reading and responding to hundreds of exam questions for a full month or until you have the confidence to schedule your NATE Core exam at the service level. A voucher code, good for (1) exam, will be provided to you and is included in your HVAC NATE re-certification program. You can take the NATE Core exam on the NATE web site. NATE’s Live Online Proctored Exams give you the opportunity to take your exam from the comfort of your own home or office, at a time that fits your schedule.

Once the Core exam is passed it does not have to be retaken as long as the technician maintains their specialty certification and does not allow it to lapse. Successful learners in our Core Program achieve a passing score on 97% of their first attempts on the NATE Core. Courses in the learning path are taken in sequence, one at a time.

After you’ve completed the NATE Ready to Work program (step 1), and followed that with the NATE Core Program (step 2), you’ll be ready to take the third and final step toward becoming a NATE Certified Technician — The NATE Air Conditioning Technician Certification Specialty Program. This program is designed to prepare a learner for the NATE Air Conditioning Specialty Certification Exam. The overall success rate for our learners who complete this portion of the certification process is over 90%. Courses in this program are taken in sequence, one at a time. To better understand all the topics included, you can read the specific course descriptions in our Master Catalog. You will have up to 60 days to complete each course, but you can move more quickly if you are able to learn that fast.

NATE suggests that technicians have two years of field experience working on Air Conditioning systems as a service technician coupled with an educational program before attempting the Specialty Area Certification Exam. We can help you get through it. The AC Specialty Exam Tests a candidate’s knowledge of the installation, service, maintenance, and repair of HVAC systems. System sizes are limited to 30 tons or less cooling capacity. To become NATE-certified, you must first pass a Service Core exam one time and then the AC Specialty exam.

What You Get From This Program