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NACE Expands Online Education Offerings

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Comment from Erik Andreassen, (5/7/2019, 5:50 PM)

Having conducted Training schools independently for the last 20 + years, finally the industry is waking up to the fact that nearly everyone out there in our trade, has NO qualifications in what they carry out. It's all self taught or passed down from elderly tradesmen through,if they are lucky, an apprenticeship.The industry has claimed that 89% of coating failures occur because of poor or inadequate surface preparation. The other remaining 20% has been leveled at the applicator. How many millions of dollars does that amount to.In my last printed letter I pointed out that when projects are awarded very few carry out an audit / inspection of the surface preparation and application staff and equipment capabilities. Yet clients are requesting a warranty of 3-5 years on the coatings and will accept 1 year for the substrate.It's about time that a certification program is required for application staff.Welders have to be certified, why not applicators?

Comment from Erik Andreassen, (5/7/2019, 5:52 PM)

Please correct the figure 80% NOT 89

Comment from Michael Kline, (5/31/2019, 10:36 AM)

SSPC has long recognized the need for craftworker certification and has been a leader in this area since 1998 when we released our C7 Abrasive Blasting certification. Since then, we’ve added C14 Plural Component certification (2004), C13 Waterjetting Certification (2005), C12 Spray Applicator certification (2006), and the Coating Application Specialist (CAS) certification (2007). CAS was developed by SSPC concurrently with the SSPC ACS-1/NACE 13 joint standard specifically to meet its requirements, and was available even before the official release of the standard in 2008.  Over the past 10 years, nearly 7,000 craftworkers have been certified by SSPC’s CAS program while nearly 6,000 have achieved separate surface prep certifications and 3,800 separate applicator certifications (all numbers are rounded). In addition to the certification programs, we have a comprehensive list of training programs for craftworkers that you can see here: http://www.sspc.org/trn-list, along with several other specialized courses targeting all aspects of protective coatings projects.  These hands-on programs are delivered around the world by qualified and experienced industry professionals, and provide a direct method of evaluating the experience and capability of professionals in what remains a very hands-on line of work.   We are definitely in agreement that certification of craftworkers is important and crucial to the success of our industry! It’s the perfect alignment of needs as asset owners are being driven to reduce lifetime costs and increase the service life of their structures, employers are demanding a better trained workforce, and craftworkers are seeking higher wages commensurate with their skills. Add to that increasing infrastructure investments and a hot job market, and certification becomes a solution to many challenges. Although craftworker certification has been around for some time, we’re glad to see that our constituents, partners and colleagues across the industry find value in programs like these and continue to advocate for them.