Michelle: You recently wrote an article for Quality about on-the-job training for NDT. Could you summarize the article for our listeners?

Donald: Absolutely. On-the-job training, of course, we know that NDT, or many of us know that, NDT has a dual structure for training. One is the formal classroom theoretical training. For example, ultrasonics is 40 hours for level one and 40 hours for level two. And then you progress to on the job training. And on the job training can come prior to the formal classroom training. That's not the issue or the topic. The topic is once you're provided your 80 hours of training, for example, then you go into the field for 840 hours of required on the job training. So that's a major component of our training structure, right? The dual training structure of NDT. What I've found over the years in the industry, having spent the last 12 years in the education sector, developing curriculum, training thousands and thousands, I think we're at 600,000 hours of training we've provided is that there is no structure for the OJT, the on-the-job training.

We have topical outlines like CP105, SNTTC1A, ISO, different standards or recommended practices that state how many hours and the topical outline of CP105 is you have to talk about, let's say for ultrasound again, principles of acoustics or equipment calibration transducer theory. And those are listed there. And, and as trainers have a lot of clear guidance as what we have to provide for the theoretical, but nobody has really approached the OJT of what is what that entails. It's just work with a level two or level three under their direct supervision. But is it just carrying my equipment? Is it actively participating in the inspections? So I think the industry really needs to address that.

Michelle: Yes. It sounds like there's consequences. In the article you wrote that the lack of this OJT standardization jeopardizes the industry's ability to produce consistently skilled technicians. Can you talk a little bit more about this or what you've kind of seen happen?

Donald: Over the years, I've talked to so many of our clients. And we've kind of back-step here. We also wear the hat as a private career school, so we bring graduates in and we place them in careers. And people that hire our graduates like them, that's why we hold such a high placement rate. But when I talk to our clients that are in positions to hire people, they will hire somebody from a different company. Let's say someone's moving and they come in, hey, I'm level two in RT, UT, MT, PT. I want to come work for you. Oh, great. You've already been certified by prior employees. And then they bring them in, and they don't have a broad knowledge of the technique, like ultrasound or radiography.

So that is an issue they have to retrain this person that's supposed to be certified and trained. Certification says, hey, you should be a well-rounded technician. Now, there's different verticals. mean, aerospace and pressure vessels are two different animals, right? So we don't expect someone to come from the aerospace sector and come into a pressure vessel sector and be totally competent. But there are universal skills that could be used. If the OJT has universal skills that will work across all sectors, then if you bring someone in from tanks and they enter aerospace, sure, you might have to add some site-specific or vertical-specific training, but it'll reduce that. So I think we really need to just address how we record, how do we track, how do we train our mentors, right? I've met a lot of level 3s that are great at creating certifications and procedures and quality programs, but they really don't know how to transfer theoretical knowledge to people. They just don't have that skill. So kind of following up on that, in an ideal world, what do you think on the job training would look like?

I think it needs to be somewhat like CP 105, which is a standard of the topical outline of what a person needs to have been taught, right? So what does my school teach? We teach all of these things in CP 105, so we know we're creating a well-rounded graduate. That being said, I would say the OJT needs some type of structure. OK, so, maybe it's a CP 108, or I don't know, whatever you want to call it, but a document that the industry puts together that you can use. So everyone is following the same template for the universal components of each, you know, a UTRT, MTPT, each method of NDT. Like I said earlier, I don't expect someone to be a perfect inspector across all verticals, but if we can build a better base, it will reduce the retraining or the additional training that they have to add. We'll just create a more well-rounded person. think it's standardized tracking, standardized methodology, better training for our mentors. Not everyone can be a trainer. Some people just don't like it. In my career, I've worked with level twos that just, hey, carry my equipment. They didn't want to spend the time with you. I enjoyed it.

And that's why I moved into the education industry.