FIFTH CANADIAN CONFERENCE ON NONDESTRUCTIVE ... - IAEA

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A major event took place in 1979 when the new CGSB M- standards started being
implemented. The advent of a new approach to ndt personnel certification followed
a long period of monitoring the world trend towards a three—level system, particularly
under the infLuence of SNT-TC-1A which dates from 1965. The resulting Mstandards
retained a general approach and a central examination system but were
extended to include a third level of competence. Provisions for employer's specific
certification were added to the standards. In the process, training courses
became compulsory and industrial requirements became less stringent.
A major difference between the two A- and M- standards involved the amount of
industrial experience needed for eligibility to examination and the new requirement
of formal training courses. The A- standards required considerably more
experience but training was not mandatory. As an example, to appreciate the
trade-off between training and experience for purpose of eligibility, one calculates
an equivalency or a equivalent trade-off of one week of training for one year
of industrial experience for the particular case of radiography Level II.
Impact of m-standards on administration
This heading describes the status of a few problems associated with the introduction
of the M-Standards.
(a) The change from A- to M- Standards meant that over 30 papers totalling over
60 hours of examination time would have to be prepared instead of the wellestablished
11 papers lasting 19 hours. Accordingly, it was necessary to replace
descriptive by multichoice questions. Considerable time savings can be achieved
mainly from marking papers.
(b) In order to mimimize personnel needs preparing written examinations, a bank
of coded examination questions stored on diskettes is approaching completion and
will contain both French and English versions. Print-outs and answer sheets allow
to save much time in respectively preparing and marking examination papers.
(c) The mandatory annual renewal of certification has become over the years a
cumbersome operation; for instance, more than 6000 pocket certificates were issued
to some 2800 persons in 1984. Software is being developed to automate those applications
for renewal. Progress was impeded in 1984 when the Division undertook
a global analysis of in-house computer requirements for both research and administrative
operations. However it is hoped to achieve progress and run dry tests in
the coming months once the computer mainframe become available.
(d) The problem of space has become critical as it must compete with R&D laboratory
needs. It was necessary to radically change filing customs from previously
holding all examination material to nearly discarding all such material, except of
course for resuLts. Even at that, space needs are increasing but resources are
not presently available to put in a computer all the desirable information material,
statistics, background information etc. However, the basic information which
is presently recorded in the Cardex systems is being transferred onto diskettes:
name, address, age, examination results, ndt method, date of certification.