At Work: Nick Eleftheriou

How did you start your career in NDT?

I was running my own business and going to university in my thirties. A friend offered me a job—several times. Finally, I asked, “What do you actually do? I don’t know anything about the industry.” And he said, “Look, you know how to run a business, and you have leadership skills, and you’re diligent and knowledgeable. The NDT part you can learn.”

What are some of the different roles that you’ve held within the industry?

I’m a believer in starting off at the grassroots level. I did a two-year trainee placement with a lot of “jobbing” work, as we refer to it in Australia, and it was the best learning curve. I’d be at a fabrication shop one day testing welds, and the next day it would be pins and shafts, and then I’d be doing some maintenance work. It taught me a lot about understanding the standards and what we’re trying to find.

In NDT, you wear many hats, and as a technician, you must take on a leadership role to ensure all reporting is done by the close of business. That led me to take on the role of inspection manager. I then decided to go back and self-fund my Level IIIs, and I took on the University of Northampton degree, which is a bachelor of science in nondestructive testing.

You served as the president of the Australian Institute for Non-Destructive Testing. How did you get involved with that organization?

You don’t jump into the president’s role without doing a lot of legwork beforehand. For me, it was volunteering at a local branch. We’d talk NDT, host tech events, and try to rally all the members who aren’t as involved or are a bit more remote.

I’m a real believer in giving back to the industry that’s given me a career, and volunteer work is great because it opens doors, creates relationships, and builds knowledge.

What were some of the major issues that the industry was facing while you were serving as president?

I stepped into my two-year tenure, and COVID hit. It raised challenges, such as how to recertify technicians who are unable to go to a training center. There were shutdowns and lockdowns, and this created a whole different dynamic. How do you get people close enough to be observing you, to get your supervision hours? It also expanded possibilities—how we can do things remotely and rethink how we operate.

How would you like to see the NDT industry evolve in the future?

In the last few years, I’ve seen several very experienced people hanging up their boots. That is the challenge we face—passing that knowledge from years of experience to our workforce.

My utopian dream is to connect the knowledge base that we already have and share it with the upcoming technicians and apprentices. Even the academics—pairing them up with practitioners who have been in the field for their entire lives, who can share that practical approach with the academic one, to then build a stronger society globally.