Other Components of an Employer-Based Certification Program
In addition to training, examinations and experience, there are multiple other requirements for the development and administration of an in-house certification program, including development of a Written Practice (or procedure), recertification requirements and certification documentation.
Written Practice. Because Recommended Practice No. SNT-TC-1A provides guidelines; employers are required to create a company NDT certification procedure known as a “Written Practice.” Employers must review the SNT-TC-1A guidelines and determine which guidelines apply to their NDT requirements, then they must create a procedure for the control and administration of NDT personnel training, examination and certification. The Written Practice should describe the responsibility of each level of certification for determining the acceptability of materials or components in accordance with applicable codes, standards, specifications and procedures, and must describe the training, experience and examination requirements for each level of certification. When included in the Written Practice, the selected guidelines become the certification requirements for the company.
Because paragraph 1.4 of SNT-TC-1A permits employers to modify the guidelines to meet their particular needs, the recurring question regarding Written Practice can be modified. This question was submitted to the ASNT SNT-TC-1A Interpretation Panel as the first formal Inquiry of 2004 ("04-1"), and that inquiry and the Panel's official response are shown below. This Inquiry (and all others from 1975 through 2009) can be found in the ASNT publication Interpreting SNT-TC-1A, which is available to ASNT members as a PDF download in the Members Only portion of the ASNT website, and is available for purchase through the ASNT online bookstore, ShopASNT. The Catalog ("Item") number is 2040.
Inquiry 04-1
Is it the intent of Paragraph 1.4 that an employer can modify the “Guidelines” of SNT-TC-1A to the extent that Level II and Level III NDT personnel can be “certified” without any examinations if written this way in the written practice?
What are the limits that are intended regarding how much the employer can deviate from SNT-TC-1A as written? If no limits are given, the employer can change the entire context of SNT-TC-1A to eliminate all certification exams. Is that the intent?