Pain areas in implementation of the Employer based Certification Schemes for Qualification and Certification of NDT Personnel.


Worldwide, two prominent Schemes in NDT Training and Certification are prevalent - Employer-based schemes (based on SNT-TC-1A) and Central Certification Schemes (based on ISO 9712). Even though ISO 9712 is getting more visibility, the employer-based schemes are still widely used in the industry.
The Written Practice is playing a pivotal role in the employer-based scheme. Even though this requirement has been around since the beginning, there are still some misconceptions regarding the implementation of the Written Practice. Many times, the owner of the Written Practice (employer) is not well aware of the requirements, and this may defeat the purpose of the Employer based Certification Scheme. 

This paper is detailing the salient features of the WP and the difficulties faced in the implementation of the WP.

The pain areas covered are:
 1. Education
 2. Experience
 3. Vision Test
 4. Training and training Programs
 5. Examination - General, Specific, Practical
 6. Practical examination Samples
 7. Certification
 8. Re-certification
 9. Technical Performance evaluation
 10. Adding new techniques

This paper is based on our extensive experience with several ASME Certification Audits and the discussions held with various Team Leaders, Authorized Inspector Supervisors and Authorized Inspectors and our field experience. The paper will recommend good practices to be followed in the implementation of the Employer based scheme.
