IT supported NDT training and certification

Rebeka SREBOTNIK1, Andrej LEŠNJAK1, Branko KAUČIČ2

1
Q TECHNA, Institute of Quality Assurance and Quality Control Ltd., Slovenia
Phone: +386 1 4204 390, Fax: +386 1 4204 383; E-mail: {rebeka.srebotnik, andrej.lesnjak}@qtechna.si
2
INITUT, Institute of information technology Ltd., Slovenia; E-mail: branko.kaucic@initut.com

Abstract
NDT training and certification help ensuring establishment of acquired knowledge, skills and other competencies
of NDT professional standards for individuals. For training and examination centres the underlying business
process of such training and certification consists of several sub-processes: training, certification, and
administration. Although administration support at first sight seems the least important sub-process, efficient IT
support saves time, delivers needed documents and materials, prevents mistakes, strictly follows standards
changes, recommendations and requests, and ensures a continuing process of the training centre.
In this paper, we present IT supported administration processes of NDT training and certification that we have
implemented in our company. Along usual processes, the focus is especially on the management of standards
changes, related documentation and materials, and managing the diversity of training and certification
obligations and documentation among different standards and training centre clients.

Keywords: NDT certification, NDT training, training centre, examination centre, information technology
support

1. Introduction
Non-destructive testing in the field of mechanical engineering and broader is increasing its
global importance. NDT personnel having quality knowledge and practical training are of
great importance for constructive and effective work performance in the field of quality
assurance. Safety and standard requirements are forcing society and organizations to an
increasing extent and emphasis on non-destructive testing. For several decades various NDT
organizations, institutes and interested organizations and public are involved in the acquisition
of NDT qualifications, certification of NDT personnel and formalization processes [15, 1].
Various debates have occurred on these topics, especially with the introduction of the
European alternative to the American standards and at the revisions of standards (e.g. [21, 8]).
Results of these debates are also some overview articles and comparative analysis, e.g. [17,
19, 20].

Competences and skills of NDT personnel are an important issue for quality performed non-
destructive testing. Regarding this, NDT training, practical training and certification in
compliance with the requirements of the employers represent a reasonable assurance of
provision of basic NDT competences and skills [10]. The necessity of training and
certification can be indirectly seen also in a substantial number of contributions by a variety
of authors, researchers, people in practice and people related to training and certification
procedures. Website NDT.net (http://www.ndt.net) is considered a rich source of information.
The influence of different areas, global, national and organizational interests are reflected also
in the requirements and implementation of trainings. Different certification schemes and
various mechanisms assuring quality of training, certification and continuity of NDT
personnel qualification have been developed [1, 2, 7]. For example, the training and
examination staff must have appropriate professional and pedagogical knowledge and skills;
quality resources and instructions following changes and requirements of standards must be
prepared; a bank of exam questions must be controlled and subject to verification of
compliance; exam specimens must be properly prepared and controlled for adequacy; a
system of internal and external control and process improvement must be established; all
training and certification processes must be subject to quality control, ensuring objectivity and
impartiality, precisely prescribed and implemented, etc. Different tasks and jobs pose
different challenges [9, 12, 13, 5, 6, 18, 4, 3, 14].

Recently, an interesting overview of training and certification related problems called “painful
areas” have been done by Diwakar and Mungel [7]. Many of these areas can be addressed by
appropriate information technology (IT) support. Namely, it has long been known that IT can
effectively support some business processes which are also integral part of business processes
of training and examination centres. According to the authors’ knowledge, so far not much
has been published about such IT support, except in [16, 4] where mainly the support to
generation of tests and their evaluation was exposed.

This paper presents a training and examination centre Q Techna and an excerpt of IT support
for this centre that helps Q Techna tackle challenges in time invested into processes,
processing of candidates’ data, data of employers, certificates, exam questions, exam
specimens, and other processes related to NDT training and certification.

2. Training and examination centre Q Techna

In Slovenia, there are two centres for training and certification of NDT personnel. Q Techna,
Institut of Quality Assurance and Quality Control Ltd. (a short title Q Techna,
http://www.qtechna.si) was founded in 1992 to provide quality assurance in the energy sector
and the rest of Slovenian industrial sectors.

In the context of the quality control our main services are:

 non-destructive testing where we are the largest institution in Slovenia and abroad


with the highest number of NDT personnel and a lot of equipment;


periodic inspection of pressure equipment;


periodic check of transportable pressure equipment including ADR reviews;


supervision of the manufacturing of metal structures;
monitoring the installation of various equipment including functional tests, etc.

In the context of the certification our main services are:



certification of rail transport interoperability;
certification of internal production control for the manufacturing of metal structures in


accordance with SIST EN 1090-1;
certification of welding production for the manufacturing of railway vehicles in


accordance with SIST EN 15085-2;


certification of welders;


certification of welding procedures;
inspection and certification of welding machinery and equipment.

In the context of the education/training our main services are:

 training and certification of NDT personnel in accordance with EN ISO 9712 and CP-
189/SNT-TC-1A;
  implementation and conducting of seminars in the field of pressure equipment,
construction, welding, NDT, etc.

After independence in 1991, Slovenia did not have an accredited certification body for
certification of NDT personnel. In 2000 we found a common interest with the certification
organization Sector Cert (http://www.sectorcert.com) in which we performed the first
certifications. Due to the high demand for NDT certification in Slovenia in 2001, Q Techna as
the only such organization in Slovenia, organized the first NDT course for Visual testing
together with Sector Cert. This is how the training and examination centre Q Techna started to
develop. Until 2009 we implemented only trainings and Sector Cert performed the
examination and certification. In 2009 we became Sector Cert's examination centre with our
own exam specimens and examiners. We perform training for 7 different NDT methods for
Level 2, and last year we also started organizing courses for Basic and Level 3. On average
we perform around 17 NDT courses annually. A large range of certifications in accordance
with ANSI/ASNT CP-189 are performed due to the needs related to the Nuclear power plant
Krško (Slovenia). The geographical scope of Q Techna training and examination centre is
primarily Slovenia and Croatia. All instructors originate from the industry and have years of
experience in the NDT field. This characterize us with high quality courses. We have 11
Level 3 instructors with a total 27 Level 3 certificates.

The quality of performed courses, instructors’ and examiners’ attitude towards candidates,
and the general professional and educational qualifications of instructors and other employees
of the company in the professional issues of our clients has led us to incredible numbers
(taking into account that Slovenia is one of the smaller countries in Europe and does not have
so many NDT professionals as for example Germany [11]). In cooperation with the Sector
Cert, Q Techna’s training and examination centre has, in its thirteen years of existence, issued
more than 1900 certificates just in accordance to EN 473 and EN ISO 9712, respectively, and
has more than 1300 registered candidates.

It was clear at the very onset of the training and examination centre that it will be difficult to
keep a record of all expired certificates of individuals, and efficient notification of clients,
their certification custodians and candidates will be needed, and archiving various
documentation will have to be taken into consideration. With these findings, we started to
develop our own, initially straightforward IT system together with a business partner Initut,
Institute of Information Technology (http://www.initut.com). In 8 years, the system has been
completely upgraded and a new one developed. With ongoing identification of potential
future problems and by continuously developing and upgrading our examination centre
software, we can now successfully run an examination centre for EN ISO 9712, SNT-TC-1A
and ANSI/ASNT CP-189 standards in multi-language setting (Slovenian, Croatian, English,
and if needed in some other foreign languages).

2.1 IT support (state-of-the-art)

As it is well known, IT can be a significant supporting service, also for training and
examination centres. In [4] the authors mention the software that allows a random selection of
questions from different chapters of the bank of questions prepared by the NDT experts. More
on the topic is discussed in [16] where the emphasis is laid on transition to computer-aided
verification of theoretical knowledge. They highlighted the following benefits of such
approach: (1) candidate’s advantage: computer bears no relation with a candidate and
evaluates him/her objectively; (2) examiner’s advantage: some examiners find it difficult to
give a negative grade which is not a problem for a computer; (3) advantage of the certification
process: employers have confidence in the certification procedure even if their candidate for
certification is not successful; and (4) advantage of the certification body: reducing
certification costs by having less time spent on the part of examiners. Since the focus was on
solving tests exclusively with the computer, authors also highlighted the negative side of
mental stress and impact of it on test performance which coincides with [3, 14].

2.2 Challenges

For the implementation and running of the NDT courses and corresponding certification, the
standards require treatment and processing of many data. Likewise, we need traceability, good
organization, using the latest revisions of existing documents, blocked exam specimens and
notification of certificates owners of their expiry.

An excerpt of data that is managed in our software:

 Candidate (participant): personal data, education degree, contact details such as e-mail
address, telephone numbers, etc., country of residence, where he/she is employed,
unique identification number, who in his/her company is responsible for his/her
certification, and if he/she is active in the field of NDT personnel; when entering a
candidate in a course, he/she is assigned a reason for attending the course (first
qualification, renewal, or recertification) according to which software recognizes
candidate’s obligations.
 Course: NDT method, Level, sector, when and where the training takes place, number
of hours of training, course and exam identification numbers, when and where the
examination is carried out, according to which standards candidates are certified, who


the instructors, exam leader, examiners, exam assistants, are etc.
Exam question: divided according to method, Level, sector, language, and whether it
is for general or specific part in exam; for ASME standards, exam questions for
specific parts are additionally divided, based on standard edition and an employer’s
logo; to each exam question a unique identification number for recognizing whether


the candidate has received such question in the past or not is assigned.
Exam specimen: sample number, document number, method, sector, type of sample,
language versions, and status of exam specimen; all exam specimens contain PDF
document of task and solution (master sheet) which allows a continuous verification of
tasks and preparation for printing the entire candidate’s exam documentation with a
single click; similar to exam questions, software does not allow using the same exam


specimen twice for the same candidate.
Instructor: basic and contact details, his/her role in courses and seminars, a list of
obtained certificates and other documents regarding the course, seminar and exam


obligations.
Additional functionality: employers (clients) data, statistical analysis, surveys, bids,
history of changes, communication archive, repository of materials and standards as
well as certificates and other formal documents.

Our software facilitates supervised automatic generation of the forms necessary for the
implementation of exams, automatic distribution of exam specimens among candidates,
generation of certificates of training, certificates of attendance, certificates of examination and
certificates, filling out FBA forms, etc. Applying the use of the above mentioned significant
time regarding the organization and performing the courses and exams is saved. In fact, we
tend not to have manual entry of data into the necessary tables and forms.

Naturally, working with different standards and their changes, every training and examination
centre cope with certain difficulties and challenges. Below we present some of them:

 Monitoring standards: standards vary relatively quickly, even entire standard labels
can change. For example, EN 970 was in 2011 replaced by a new standard labelled EN
ISO 17637. Such changes represent a serious problem to people engaged in NDT
testing. The same applies to other documents related to the quality of training centres
[13, 4]. The challenge is how to manage this in the company in order to provide all


employees with up-to-date information and the latest versions of standards.
Preparation of exams: in specific courses we may have a mixed group of candidates
calling for different types of certification application, in accordance with relevant
standards. For example, a group may contain individuals who have only certification
according to EN ISO 9712, some only according to SNT-TC-1A, some only according
to CP-189, while some of them may apply to the combination of these three
certifications. In addition, candidates may come from different employers which
means taking into account also their specifics is another criterion to be thought about.
The challenge is how to minimize the effort to cope with all possible combinations


and variations in groups of candidates.
Training materials: materials are subject to change due to improvements and changes
of the standards [4]. Some changes can also occur during the lecture (grammatical
corrections, translations, etc.), and the same material or parts of materials are used by
different instructors. The challenge is how, regardless of the ongoing usual
distribution of latest material revisions to instructors, to ensure 100% use of the latest
revision of the material in the training.

2.3 Solutions

Monitoring standards:
In our software, all employees have access to the repository of standards and related
documentation owned by the company. Standards are divided by standard number, title,
language and status. Each standard can have assigned additional attributes to which NDT
method and sector belongs for corresponding search engine. In addition, the relationships to
other standards and documents can be assigned. They can be one-way or two-way
connections (replaces, replaced, supplements, similarity, translation, etc.).

Figure 1 shows a list of standards having search text “970” and an example of the standard
EN 970:1997 at the top of the list. We can see that it has status blocked which means that it is
no longer in use, and in the comment attribute that it was replaced. Additionally, Figure 1
shows sub-lists of related standards and other documents, and we can see that EN 970:1997 is
replaced with the standard EN ISO 17637:2011, and it is also translated into Slovene
language. Despite the invalidity of standards users have access to the original documents of
standards and translations (translations are made exclusively for the purpose of training).

Inversely, Figure 2 shows the SIST EN ISO 17637:2011 standard and how a user can get a
related EN 970:1997 standard. Each user has an additional functionality of commenting
standards and reviewing the preceding comments.
 Figure 1. List of standards having search text 970, related standards and documents are shown on demand

Figure 2. Standard SIST EN ISO 17637:2011 in list of standards and related standards and documents

Preparation of exams:
Courses performed by Q Techna are diversified in the terms of obligations. Market conditions
have led the examination centre to the implementation of certifications according to EN ISO
9712, SNT-TC-1A and ANSI/ASNT CP-189. Due to a small market it is not economical to
organize each type of certification separately, however we have to take into consideration
different requirements. For example, realistic situation in one course can be as follows:

 Certification Visual testing Level 2 in accordance with EN ISO 9712: the general part
requires a minimum of 30 questions; the specific part also requires 30 questions (if the
candidate certifies for a multi-sector); the practical examination includes one


instruction and three different (by sector) exam specimens.
Certification Visual testing Level 2 in accordance with SNT-TC-1A:2006: the general
part requires a minimum of 40 questions; the specific part requires 20 questions; the


practical examination includes at least one exam specimen of the technique.
Certification Visual testing Level 2 in accordance with ANSI/ASNT CP-189:1996: the
general part requires a minimum of 30 questions; the specific part requires 20
questions; the practical examination includes at least one exam specimen per
technique.

Since we are not a certification body for EN ISO 9712, we get all exam questions from Sector
Cert. That leaves us to define additional questions for the general part in the case of
certification according to SNT-TC-1A and an additional exam for a specific part of the
American norms. A candidate approaching to American norms also gets an additional exam
specimen.

An example of the distribution of individual certifications (prior to the actual examination and
entering the examination grades) in the course is shown in Figure 3 (for security reasons real
data are covered).
 Figure 3. List of candidates for specific training and examination

From the figure it can be seen that we have a candidate who is in a process to gain certificate
only in accordance with ANSI/ASNT CP-189, a candidate in accordance with EN ISO 9712
and ANSI/ASNT CP-189, and a candidate in accordance with all three standards. As
mentioned before, the diversity is reflected in the theoretical and practical part of the
certification.

For the theoretical part our software generates two tests for the general part, one with 30 and
one with 40 exam questions. Figure 4 shows the interface where the user determines which
exam sets from the bank of exam questions are used in tests.

Figure 4. Management of exam sets that are used in tests

The software searches for the exam questions for each exam set (or chapter) in the bank of
multilingual exam questions and takes into account the history of candidates in courses. A
candidate never gets the same exam question twice, a selection of exam questions is
randomized and tries to maintain the most uniform use of exam questions. Due to candidates’
requests all theoretical tests are performed in a written form (contrary to [16]), the software
prepares exam tests and answer matrices in an appropriate form to speed up the evaluation of
answers and reduce the possibility of erroneous assessments.

Another important process is to determine the exam specimens for the candidates. For
example, a candidate gets exam specimens according to EN ISO 9712 for 3 different sectors
in case of multi-sector + instruction for Level 2, and additionally also an exam specimen for
American norms (fourth set). Figure 5 shows an example of exam specimens distribution for
specific examination. The candidates that already participated in exams in our examination
centre have beside their name also a list of exam specimens from all methods that they
received in previous exams. An additional control is offered in the list of exam specimens for
a specific set to prevent manual assigning of already used exam specimen.
 Figure 5. Management of exam specimens used in examination

After completion of the candidate’s evaluation, all results are entered in the software and the
software marks which parts of examination were successful/unsuccessful (Figure 6); and for
those who were successful the software interface offers the possibility of creating certificates.
In addition, Figure 6 shows some additional attributes that can be entered for each candidate,
e.g. when the application for certification is received, if he/she has received the certificate,
intermediate results, logos on tests, generation of documentation, notification of candidates,
etc.

Figure 6. Management of candidates for specific training and examination with all options activated

Training materials:
In 2014 we decided to implement wiki-based content management that will be specifically
used for preparation and dissemination of training materials (Figure 7).

We used the DokuWiki content engine (http://www.dokuwiki.org) as a core and upgraded it

with several plugins to enhance the functionality: a better and more user friendly editor since
users are mainly instructors with limited e-knowledge, custom tags that allow emphasizing
the content for instructors, and distinguishing parts of content that are for candidates, and
preparation of printer friendly documents that are delivered to candidates. With wiki engine
several authors can work simultaneously, access to the content is authorization limited, the
content can be multilingual and in different formats (e.g. additional Microsoft PowerPoint
presentations, video, etc.), historical versions are maintained, and training materials exist only
in one place which was a crucial issue that we wanted to achieve. We are currently dealing
with massive preparation of contents (transformation from existing Microsoft Word
documents and its revision), first usage of wiki-based content in training is scheduled for the
end of 2014.
 Figure 7. Wiki-based management of training materials (an example of material in Slovene language)

3. Conclusion
Processes of training and certification of personnel in the field of non-destructive testing are
challenging and complex tasks which are difficult to handle. Providing the above, we have an
information system of significant help in coordinating and performing many intertwined
tasks. Here we are not talking only about the management of exam questions, but also a
number of other tasks such as: management of written materials, standards, exam specimens,
history of candidates - especially in conjunction with previous exams, any intertwining of
instructors and examiners, certificates generation and reports, information on the expiry of
certificates validity, documenting process documents, and more. Relying solely on the human
factor is not enough. Therefore, the informatization is of vital importance.

Software in this area has so far been a bottleneck and specifically tailored to a target client
(custom made software). This is now changing as a new modular software, as described in the
paper, enabling them to rapidly adapt to most training and examination centres.

References

1. T Aastroem, 'From Fifteen to Two Hundred NDT methods in Fifty Years', Proceedings
of 17th World Conference on Nondestructive Testing, 25-28 Oct 2008, Shanghai, China,
2008.
2. R Alijah, 'The Different Qualification Systems For NDE Personnel', Proceedings of 18th
WCNDT Conference, 16-20 April, Durban, South Africa, 2012.
3. J P Barnard and H C De Wet, 'The Challenges between the Older Generation and New
Era Level 3’s', Proceedings of 18th WCNDT Conference, 16-20 April, Durban, South
Africa, 2012.
4. N P Biryukova, I Y Pushkina and B V Turobov, 'About Russian Society for NDT and
Technical Diagnostics (RSNTTD) Voluntary System of Personnel Certification in the
 Field of NDT and Diagnostics', Proceedings of 9th ECNDT Conference, 25-29
September, Berlin, Germany, 2006b.
5. G Cataldo, 'A three Year Experience of an Examination Center According to EN 473',
Proceedings of 15th WCNDT Conference, 15-21 October, Rome, Italy, 2000.
6. D J Diwakar, 'The deciding factor in the success of NDT - NDT Examiners for
personnel Qualification Examination', Proceedings of 15th WCNDT Conference, 15-21
October, Rome, Italy, 2000.
7. D J Diwakar and M Surendra, 'Qualification and Certification of NDT Personnel –
Concepts and Misconcepts', Proceedings od 14th APCNDT Conference, 18-22
November, Mumbai, India, 2013.
8. C Eriksson, 'Why do We Need a National Certification System Like Nordtest when We
Have the European Standard EN 473?', Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29
May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
9. D Henning, 'Sense and Nonsense of Multisectoral Certification of NDT-Personnel',
Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
10. H Hoogstraate, 'EN 473/45013 Certificates are not the Ultimate Answer to Questions
about Non-Destructive Testing', Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May,
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
11. U Kaps, 'Lacks and Gaps of EN 473', Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29
May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
12. S J Lavender, 'The Role of Central Certification with a Company Written Practice',
Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
13. V Levkovitch, S Zinovjeva, 'Quality System of NDT Personnel Certification Body',
Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
14. A Mahomed, 'NDT Training, working with Generation X', Proceedings of 18th
WCNDT Conference, 16-20 April, Durban, South Africa, 2012.
15. R Roche, 'The History of the Certification of NDT Personnel in Europe', Proceedings of
7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
16. A L Shekero, V A Troitskij, 'Improvement of Objectiveness of the NDT Experts
Certification Results by Computerization of the Examination Procedure', Proceedings of
15th WCNDT Conference, 15-21 October, Rome, Italy, 2000.
17. F R Sosnine, 'Comparative Analysis of Norms of Russia, the USA and Europe of NDT
Personnel Certification', Proceedings of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May,
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.
18. M Stadthaus, H M Thomas, J Baugatz, W Konig, N P Migoun, P P Prokhorenko and A
B Gunsin, 'Reproducibility problem for the procedure of type testing of liquid
penetrants', Proceedings of 8th ECNDT Conference, 17-21 June, Barcelona, Spain,
2002.
19. J Thompson, 'Global Review of Qualification and Certification of Personnel for NDT &
Condition Monitoring', Proceedings of 12th Asia-Pacific Conference on NDT, 5-10
November, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006.
20. J Thompson, 'Global Review of Qualification and Certification of Personnel for NDT &
Condition Monitoring', Proceedings of 9th ECNDT Conference, 25-29 September,
Berlin, Germany, 2006.
21. M L Turnbow, 'Progress in Introducing Central Certification in the USA', Proceedings
of 7th ECNDT Conference, 26-29 May, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1998.