The South African Institute of Welding (SAIW) is gearing up to present its internationally recognised nondestructive testing (NDT) Level 3 Workshop in March.
The workshop builds on pre-existing Level 1 and 2 NDT qualifications to enable attendees to take on a more senior managerial role within an organisation. This includes the ability to oversee all NDT procedural and quality checks and the authorisation and management of individual staff NDT operations.
SAIW NDT training manager Mark Digby says the South African NDT industry “is suffering” owing to the lack of enough competent Level 3 NDT personnel.
With the growing demand from end-users to have them directly involved during outages and shutdowns, combined with the global movement towards ISO 9712, Digby laments that “there is a massive shortage in the industry”, which has resulted in high consultation prices and some individuals being over-used and extended beyond their service delivery capacity.”
In light of this, the SAIW Level 3 course seeks to address this challenge with a key target market for the course, being senior personnel engineers and managers wanting to improve their knowledge relating to NDT. The course is nationally accredited and internationally recognised.
“We are considering including a Web-based presentation, pending interest, to run together with the actual courses. Students opting for this route would be able to attend from where they are located via MS teams,” Digby adds.
Despite the current skill pressures facing the country, SAIW is confident that the future “does indeed look brighter” for the development of senior NDT management level skills in South Africa.
The SAIW is also seeking to boost its NDT operations with the introduction of a Card System for Qualified NDT Inspectors that will allow them to present and prove their qualifications wherever and whenever they need to.
There are also plans to restart the SAIW’s NDT consulting services, which are aimed at assisting small and medium-sized companies with their in-house NDT systems and their testing and examination processes.