Volume 5, Number 3
July 2006
Q. My company had several people take Level I and Level II training in Electromagnetic Testing (ET) back in 2002 and received training certificates at that time. Now a client is telling me that the certificates are "out of date" and that I have to have them recertified. Is this correct?
A. Your question is actually two, one regarding training and one regarding recertification. Training hours remain valid throughout the length of an attendee's career as long as the training can be properly documented. Documentation in the form of a signed letter or certificate of completion that shows the dates of the training, the number of contact (attendance) hours, the training subject, and the instructor's signature is usually adequate. If initial training documentation is lost it may be necessary to retake training to get new documentation, but training itself does not expire. NDT certification does expire, with the period of validity being dependent on the type of certification being considered. The Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A guidelines recommend a 3-year recertification cycle for employer-certified Level I and Level II personnel, but if those personnel leave the company prior to that time then their certification expires when they leave the company. They can be re-examined and recertified by another company based in part on the earlier training documents, but they do have to re-examine.
However, if personnel hold central certification, such as that issued through the ASNT Central Certification Program (ACCP), these certificates do not expire when the certificate holder leaves an employer but remain in effect for 5 years from the date of issue. TNT
E-mail, fax or phone questions for the Inbox to the Editor:
hhumphries@asnt.org
(800) 222-2768 X 206
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[ The NDT Technician ]
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