The National Association of Surety Bond Producers (NASBP) prepared this online training course, “Understanding Contract Surety Bonding: An Orientation Course for Small Contractors,” to provide small and emerging contractors with the information and resources necessary to understand contract surety bonds and how best to position themselves to achieve surety credit. Without a basic knowledge of contract surety bonds, a small contractor will find it difficult to grow its business past a relatively small size.The course is available for anyone at any time, and is priced at $25. The course can be taken by a student at his/her own pace within a 12-month period after purchase. Each chapter concludes with review questions to help the student gauge how well he/she has comprehended the chapter’s content. Remedial responses or brief explanations about the answers are provided for each question. To receive a certificate of completion of the course, the student must respond to all questions but does not have to provide a correct answer for every question.The chapter titles are:

Chapter 1 What Is Contract Surety?
Chapter 2 What the Surety Looks for in a Contractor (or How Do I Become Bondable?)
Chapter 3 Role of the Professional Surety Bond Producer
Chapter 4 Establishing Relationships with Other Professional Service Providers—Bankers and Attorneys
Chapter 5 Construction Procurement and the Roles of Those Involved
Chapter 6 Governmental and Other Resources for Small Construction Companies
Chapter 7 Basics of Contract Bond Claims

After completing this orientation course, a small and emerging contractor should expect to have the following:

a basic understanding of three main contract surety bonds: bid bonds, performance bonds, and payment bonds;
a basic understanding of the surety’s prequalification process, i.e., how a small contractor becomes bondable;
information about the four professional service providers critical to a small contractor’s success: the surety bond producer, construction accountant, banker, and construction attorney;
an overview of the traditional construction procurement process;
a basic understanding of the roles of the main parties involved in the construction process: owner, design professional (architect or engineer), contractor, and subcontractors;
an awareness of the resources available to a small contractor to assist it with obtaining advice on business growth, obtaining bonds, and obtaining loans; and
a basic understanding of the bond claims process.

NASBP has partnered with WebCE, a leading nationwide provider of Continuing Education for insurance professionals, to provide this online course. WebCE® is the leading insurance continuing education provider in North America that delivers over a half a million online courses annually.

To register for the “Understanding Contract Surety Bonding: An Orientation Course for Small Contractors” Course, click here.