Recertification

NAI offers four certifications: Certified Heritage Interpreter (CHI), Certified Interpretive Manager (CIM), Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP), and Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT). Once certified, your certification is valid for four years. To maintain your certification you must complete 40 hours of continuing education (CE) within your validation period. You may recertify up to a year in advance of your expiration date. Your expiration date can be found in your account when you sign in to NAI’s website.

The Interpretive Guide (CIG) and Interpretive Host (CIH) certificates no longer require recertification and do not need to be renewed.
Everyone who has an active certificate in December 2023 and on will receive a new certificate that will show no expiration date. We are hoping to have the certificates emailed sometime in July, 2024.


Recertification Application

Continuing Education Hours

What Counts

Consider the continuing education opportunity you would like to apply towards recertification. if you can answer yes to the questions below, the hours will most likely apply:

  • Am I the student learning?
  • Does it apply to my job as an interpreter?
  • Will it make my interpretation better?
  • Is it an official training?

Hour Limitations

Up to 10 hours of safety courses (CPR, first aid, WFR, rifle safety, fire safety etc) and up to 10 hours of interpretive program observations can be applied towards recertification.

What Does NOT Count

The following do not count as continuing education hour and will not apply towards recertification:

  • Regular job duties or contracted work
  • Planning of events or programs
  • Watching interpretive films
  • Training/experiences that have limited to no relevance to interpretation

Documentation

You do not need to document CE hours obtained through NAI programs, such as conferences, courses, or webinars. On the recertification application, simply check that you would like to use these NAI-issued hours. You can also find your CE hours in your NAI account, under My Account and then My Activities. Any NAI activities that have happened within the past year may not show up immediately. However, we have records of all NAI-issued CE hours so you do not need to notify us. This also applies to CE hours awarded by serving as a peer reviewer for professional certifications.

Continuing education hours obtained outside of NAI must be documented. This documentation must clearly specify the date, place, subject, sponsor, and total hours of the training. If the training provider issues a certificate with this information, you may submit the certificate as proof of the continuing education hours, otherwise you can use a combination of documents to provide proof of participation and hours earned. If you cannot provide documentation for a past training, you may use our continuing education form, which requires supervisor verification.

Submitted documentation must be formatted as a .pdf, .doc, or .docx, and be less than .98 MB, which is approximately 10 pages. You may upload more than one group of documents to your account.

NAI does not have the capacity to bank hours over the required 40 hours of continuing education needed in a four-year period. Documentation of continuing education must be submitted for each certification at the time of recertification.

Recertification Rates

The recertification fee for current NAI members is $35; the recertification fee for non members is $85.

You may renew your membership by clicking here. Please note it will take one to two business days for your membership to take effect. You will receive an email when your membership becomes active. Please do not go through the recertification application until the processing of your membership has been verified.

Payment must be made at the time of submission. When your application and submitted documentation have been reviewed you will receive an email confirming your recertification.

Late fees

Depending on your certification, NAI provides the following to accommodate individuals who have exceeded the month grace period without having to completely resubmit their materials for peer review:

  • For CIT, CIM, CIP, CHI if it is 30 days to one year past expiration, you will have to pay $125.00 if you are a member/$200 if you are not. If it is past one year you will have to reapply and resubmit your materials for peer review.

Contact Information

If you have any additional questions you email recertification@interpnet.com and we will get back to you.