TRACE NDTTRACE NDT

Industry research

The Certification Currency Survey

Our industry has exacting standards for performing an inspection and almost nothing describing how we track who is currently qualified to perform one. We went looking for published data on it — journals, associations, vendors — and found none.

This is an attempt to produce some. Five minutes, up to 17 questions, for anyone responsible for certification currency. Leave an email at the end and the findings reach you before they go anywhere else; answer anonymously if you would rather.

Run by Mike Gardner at TRACE. Yes, we make software in this space — which is exactly why the methodology and the raw aggregate tables will be published alongside the findings. Check our arithmetic.

Question 1: Which best describes your role?

1

Question 2: Are you responsible — wholly or partly — for tracking whether technicians' certifications are current?

2

Question 3: How many technicians' certifications fall within your responsibility?

3

Question 4: How do you track certification currency today?

4

Select all that apply.

Question 5: How many separate places would you have to look to answer "is this technician current in this method, today?"

5

Question 6: In the last three years, has a certification, vision exam, or other required item lapsed without being noticed at the time?

6

Question 7: If that happened, how was it eventually discovered?

7

Skip if it hasn't.

Question 8: Roughly how long had it been lapsed when it was found?

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Question 9: Thinking of your most recent audit: roughly how many hours went into assembling personnel and certification evidence?

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Question 10: In a typical month, how many times does someone ask you for a certification status update that you have to go and assemble?

10

Question 11: How much of that work do you consider avoidable with better tooling?

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Question 12: If you were unavailable for a month, how many other people could answer certification-currency questions for your organization without guesswork?

12

Question 13: Is the tracking system you use documented anywhere someone else could pick it up?

13

Question 14: Which apply to your organization or clients?

14

Select all that apply.

Question 15: If Nadcap applies, when is your next audit?

15

Question 16: What is the single most frustrating part of keeping certification records straight?

16

In your own words. These answers are the most useful thing in the survey.

Optional follow-up

Optional

Leave these unticked to answer anonymously.

Published results are reported in aggregate only. Our marketing team reads individual answers, which carry no name or email. Free-text answers may be quoted anonymously unless you tell us otherwise.