Feeling Lost in NDT Certifications? Let’s Decode It Together

Table of Contents

1. Episode Overview
2. Meet the Panelists
3. How They Found NDT — Stories From the Panel
4. Certified vs Qualified — The Distinction That Matters
5. The Certification Schemes: ISO 9712, ASNT, PCN & NAS 410
6. The OJT Gap — From Hours to Demonstrated Competence
7. When Someone Shouldn't Be in the Field
8. Mentorship — Passing the Torch
9. NDT Engineer vs NDT Technician
10. Key Q&A Highlights
11. Key Takeaways

1. Episode Overview

For the very first edition of NDT Talks, OneStop NDT tackled one of the most crucial — and most confusing — aspects of the field: NDT certification. Whether you are a student just starting out, a technician aiming to grow, or someone considering a move into the industry, the landscape of ISO 9712, ASNT, PCN and employer-based schemes can read like a wall of acronyms.

This session brought four senior NDT professionals together to decode what those schemes actually mean, how the certification levels work, and — the theme the panel kept returning to — why a certificate on its own rarely proves a person can do the job. The conversation was refreshingly honest about where the system works, where it falls short, and where it is heading next.

2. Meet the Panelists

Moderator Daniel Hoke — founder of A Better Inspector, with 15+ years of inspection experience and a champion of NDT 4.0 — guided the discussion across four experts whose careers span the major certification schemes and four decades of fieldwork.

3. How They Found NDT — Stories From the Panel

Each panelist came to NDT by a different route — and through a different certification “world.” That detail set up the whole discussion: the underlying physics is shared, but the schemes around it are not, and learning to move between them is where the confusion begins.

Donald Booth — The North Slope Start

DB · Donald Booth │ American Institute of Nondestructive Testing

“I started on the North Slope of Alaska, and they had a pretty tight certification program in place. We used SNT-TC-1A and CP-189 — classroom training, on-the-job training, then a three-part exam. It was all straightforward, because I wasn't yet dealing with PCN or ISO 9712.”

Nathan Bate — A Green Trainee on PCN

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“Being UK-based, we use PCN for general engineering. I started as a trainee with very little knowledge of NDT — very green. For the first seven or eight years I only really knew PCN and ISO 9712. It can be confusing when you first start.”

Madhavan Krishnamurthy — A Special Task in 1981

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“My career started in 1981, more than 44 years ago. After my graduate engineering I was given NDT as a special task on a big project with a German company. My first qualification was UT Level 2, and the examiner inspired me so much that I never looked at another branch of engineering again.”

Michael Turnbow — Pressure Vessels to Nuclear

MT · Michael Turnbow │ UG Technologies

“I was too young to realise I was overwhelmed — but I was. Out of college I joined Chicago Bridge and Iron building pressure vessels, just as they started building reactor vessels. The classroom training was no problem; getting the OJT was always the struggle — and that's still my issue today.”

★ A pattern worth noting: every panelist learned one certification scheme first — ASNT, PCN or ISO 9712 — and only later had to translate across the others. The base knowledge is similar everywhere; the real maze is the schemes, the paperwork, and the practical requirements that differ between them.

4. Certified vs Qualified — The Distinction That Matters

This was the distinction the panel returned to most often, and the one newcomers most often get wrong. The two words are not interchangeable.

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“Qualification is everything — the OJT, the training and the exam — that puts you right on the edge of certification. Certification is just the written testimony of that qualification. Who that testimony comes from is the real difference between schemes.”

Keep the Records That Travel With You

DB · Donald Booth │ American Institute of Nondestructive Testing

“Education and OJT together make you qualified to be certified. Don't lose your OJT hours, don't lose your education certificates — keep them organised, because that's what you carry from one company to the next.”

5. The Certification Schemes: ISO 9712, ASNT, PCN & NAS 410

The biggest practical difference between schemes is who signs off on your certificate — and whether it travels with you when you change employers. Broadly, they split into third-party (central) schemes and employer-based schemes.

PCN NDT Certification — Portable, but Not a Licence

Nathan Bate, who works for a BINDT-approved training and qualifying body, explained how PCN NDT certification differs from the employer-based route. With PCN you do your OJT with your employer, log it on a PSL/30 form, complete an approved training course at an ATO, and sit a BINDT-set examination. The certificate then travels with you throughout your career — but holding it is not the same as being allowed to work.

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“With PCN, the employer doesn't issue your certificate — BINDT does. But even with twenty PCN certificates on a list, you still need written authorisation from your employer to carry out NDT on their behalf.”

ASNT's Flexibility and Product Technology

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“PCN is international, so it considers material technology — casting, forging, welding. ASNT Level 2 is more of an in-house qualification, and the certificate is revoked when you move companies. The practical part is far more stringent in the other schemes.”

6. The OJT Gap — From Hours to Demonstrated Competence

If one theme united the panel, it was this: on-the-job training measured purely in hours does not prove competence. A technician can finish 80 hours of UT training and still be unable to perform a basic thickness calibration.

MT · Michael Turnbow │ UG Technologies

“Nobody trusts the cert. The cert is a piece of paper. You've got to show me you know what you're doing — that you can calibrate and find flaws — when you come into my place.”

Michael Turnbow brought hard data from nuclear: across decades of studies compiled by EPRI, qualified and certified inspectors handed blocks containing real flaws found only about half of them. The fix his group landed on — drawn from the nuclear operators' Systematic Approach to Training — replaces time-served with a demonstration-based qualification card.

MT · Michael Turnbow │ UG Technologies

“There is no time — you replace it with demonstration. You can get through the qual for UT or RT in about a month, not twelve. When we send them to EPRI, they pass at 85 to 90%.”

Madhavan Krishnamurthy described the parallel practice in Singapore: regardless of the certificate a person holds, stakeholders run a mockup test before a critical job.

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“Even when a person is certified, the stakeholders run a mockup test before a critical job — a stand-in for the real component with the expected discontinuities. That is the deciding factor for accepting them.”

7. When Someone Shouldn't Be in the Field

Each panelist had seen certified people who simply couldn't do the work. The common remedy was the same: demonstration, backed by the employer's written authorisation to operate.

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“Even with an untrained eye I could see what the operator should have seen. He'd been allowed to operate on his certificate alone — never asked to demonstrate. It comes back to written operating authorisation.”

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“Out of nearly 190 radiographs, 10 to 15% looked identical. I proved by visual verification that they weren't of the actual joints. The technician was removed and his certificate revoked.”

MT · Michael Turnbow │ UG Technologies

“A UT guy with five years and a Level 2 simply could not calibrate. I waited two hours, we did lunch — he never could. You can't touch a nuclear plant until you show us you know what you're doing.”

8. Mentorship — Passing the Torch

Mentorship ran through the whole conversation as the lever that turns a certificate into a capable inspector — and the panel was candid that not every expert makes a good mentor.

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“You'll see two kinds of people: those who show you everything and bring you along, and those who hide things to stay the go-to guy. The second kind can be quite harmful to your career.”

DB · Donald Booth │ American Institute of Nondestructive Testing

“Teach a man to fish. Not everyone is a mentor — we should have a course and a certification for mentors. And stop calling new people 'helpers'; treat them as paid apprentices, with structure and milestones.”

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“Today's participants only want to pass the exam — knowledge is secondary. I always tell them knowledge matters more than passing this time. Level III without Level 2 experience doesn't serve the stakeholders.”

Michael Turnbow recalled learning the “backwards way” on deliberately flawed weld samples at the Tennessee Valley Authority — porosity, lack of fusion, slag and cracks he'd never seen in a clean fab shop. In the program he runs now, every mentor must complete training and sign an ethics commitment before being turned loose.

9. NDT Engineer vs NDT Technician

There is no universal certification that separates the two titles. The panel offered loose but useful guidance.

NB · Nathan Bate │ UK (PCN / BINDT)

“There's no standard that clearly defines it. BINDT runs three apprenticeships — operator, technician and engineer — that loosely map to Levels I, II and III.”

MK · Madhavan Krishnamurthy │ Setsco Services, Singapore

“In the process industry the NDT engineer is often API 571 qualified. They understand damage mechanisms, judge fitness-for-service, and can even influence the design when a weld profile keeps failing.”

Michael Turnbow took it further: early reactors were built without thinking about inspectability, costing millions in robots and crawlers to reach what couldn't otherwise be reached. The NDE engineer's job, he argued, is to sit with the designers and make sure that mistake isn't repeated — and he pointed to ABET-accredited NDE degree programs, like the one at Chattanooga State, as a route to building that expertise.

10. Key Q&A Highlights

Q — How did the panelists first encounter NDT certification?

Each came in through a different scheme — ASNT and CP-189 in Alaska, PCN in the UK, a special project in India, pressure vessels in the US. The shared lesson: the theory is similar across schemes, so the confusion lives in the paperwork and the practical requirements, not the physics.

Q — What is the difference between being certified and being qualified?

Qualified means you have the training, the documented OJT and a passed exam — everything up to the edge of certification. Certified is the written testimony of that qualification. Who issues it — an employer or a central body — is the real difference between schemes.

Q — Which scheme should I choose — ISO 9712, ASNT or PCN?

It depends on your industry and region. Oil and gas in the UK typically mandates PCN; aerospace runs on NAS 410 / EN 4179; ASNT (SNT-TC-1A) dominates in the US and offers flexibility. Third-party schemes (ISO 9712, PCN) travel with you; employer schemes are tied to the employer.

Q — Does holding a certificate mean I'm ready to work?

No. The panel was unanimous: a certificate is a piece of paper. Expect to demonstrate competence — a mockup or calibration test — and to obtain written authorisation from your employer before operating on their behalf.

Q — Which NDT certification pays the most?

Pay is driven by experience, level and the methods you hold — not by the scheme. Advanced ultrasonics and radiography are in higher demand and tend to pay more than surface methods such as PT.

Q — I have Level 2 and a metallurgy degree — what's next?

Madhavan's advice to a student in the chat: aim for Level III in at least four methods within two years, set a five-year plan, and add welding or API certifications relevant to your industry.

Q — How do I navigate so many technical standards?

Start from the job. Understand the product, how it was made and how it functions — then read the relevant standard for its purpose and interpretation, rather than as plain text.

11. Key Takeaways

1. Qualified means training + documented OJT + a passed exam. Certified is the written proof of it — they are not the same thing.
2. Third-party schemes (ISO 9712, PCN) travel with you; employer-based schemes (ASNT, NAS 410) are tied to the employer that issued them.
3. Even a stack of portable PCN certificates is not a licence to work — you still need written employer authorisation.
4. The industry is shifting from hours-based OJT to demonstrated competence, with qualification-card models cutting 12 months to roughly one.
5. A certificate is no guarantee of field readiness — expect a mockup or demonstration test before critical work.
6. Build broad method knowledge early; the panelists valued being all-round inspectors over narrow specialists.
7. Find a generous mentor, invest in yourself, and don't wait for the employer to fund your growth.
8. Level III without solid Level 2 experience doesn't serve the stakeholders relying on the inspection.