Leading What's Next: Modernizing SNT-TC-1A

It is a multi-year ASNT effort to update SNT-TC-1A, the document that guides employer-based qualification of NDT personnel. The initiative covers the document itself as well as the guidance, tools, and education that support it. It is not a single revision, but an ongoing project that will unfold in phases, with input from the industry along the way.

The industry SNT-TC-1A serves has changed. Employers need more qualified personnel than ever, methods and technology have advanced, and organizations often interpret parts of the document differently. Modernization is meant to make SNT-TC-1A clearer, easier to apply consistently, and better supported by practical tools for the people who use it every day.

No. The SNT-TC-1A name and its role as the industry's employer-based qualification framework are not changing. Modernization is about strengthening the document and the support around it, not replacing it or retiring it.

Employer-based qualification stays at the center of SNT-TC-1A, and your written practice remains the foundation of your program. Employers keep the flexibility to shape programs around their own methods, applications, and customer requirements. Responsible Level III personnel remain essential to program oversight, and organizations that already exceed SNT-TC-1A can continue to do so.

We do not have a finished model today, and that is intentional. We are in the Discovery and Gap Analysis Phase. We know the modernization effort should strengthen confidence, consistency, transparency, accountability, and demonstrated competence while preserving appropriate employer flexibility. 

Your experience with the current document, what works, what does not, and where challenges arise, will shape the future framework. 

The project is being developed around the continued importance of the employer-based model.

A major objective is to strengthen confidence in employer-based qualification and certification without eliminating the flexibility employers need to address different industries, applications, technologies, equipment, procedures, and workforce requirements. The challenge is finding the right balance between flexibility and consistency.

It is too early to determine what specific changes may ultimately be required. 

If SNT-TC-1A changes, employers may eventually need to update portions of their Written Practices. However, implementation requirements and transition provisions will be developed later in the project. Phase 1 is focused on understanding what employers need before those requirements are designed. 

No final decision has been made regarding specific training or experience requirements.

ASNT is examining whether relying primarily on elapsed hours is sufficient to demonstrate that someone can actually perform the work required of them. Phase 1 is exploring how training, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, and demonstrated performance should work together in a modern qualification system.

That has not been decided. The project will evaluate the existing qualification levels and how well they reflect today's NDT responsibilities and workforce needs.

Any potential changes would require significant technical development, stakeholder involvement, validation, and industry review before being implemented.

No. Keep following your current written practice and the current edition of SNT-TC-1A. ASNT will publish transition guidance and effective dates well before any new requirement applies, and this page will carry those announcements first.

There is no immediate change taking place to SNT-TC-1A. 

Modernization is a multi-phase effort involving discovery, technical development, validation, standards revision, pilot activities, and transition planning. Industry will have opportunities for continued engagement as the work progresses. 

Yes. Personnel qualified under your current written practice remain qualified. ASNT will publish transition guidance well in advance of any changes, so employers and personnel have time to prepare rather than needing to start over.

No. Programs that already meet customer, code, regulatory, or internal requirements beyond SNT-TC-1A can continue to do so. Modernization is not intended to reduce what employers who go further are already doing.

Employer-based qualification, as described in SNT-TC-1A, is the process by which an employer determines that a person is qualified to perform NDT tasks under that employer's written practice. Certification is an independent credential issued by a certification body, such as ASNT, based on its own requirements. The two are related but distinct, and modernization aims to make that distinction clearer.

Not by itself. Certification can support qualification, but employer-based qualification under SNT-TC-1A is ultimately the employer's determination, based on the requirements in their written practice. Employers decide how certification factors into their own qualification program.

ASNT is reviewing international standards and other qualification models as part of the discovery process, but the objective is not simply to convert SNT-TC-1A into another existing certification system.

The modernization effort focuses on strengthening the employer-based model and ensuring it remains credible, practical, and relevant to current and future NDT work.