Canada faces shortage of NDT inspectors

Employers need to create more entry-level positions for non-destructive testing (NDT) inspectors to help alleviate a skills shortage, according to the Canadian Institute for NDE (CINDE).

NDE stands for non-destructive evaluation—and includes techniques such as ultrasonic testing, radiography and thermography. NDT is a crucial part of quality and maintenance found in many industry sectors, including the nuclear utility, oil and gas, petrochemical, manufacturing, aerospace and construction sectors.

“Against that backdrop, Canada faces a shortage everywhere. We need to pay more attention at all levels: federally, provincially and at the owner/operator level to know whether or not we’re doing the right things to attract more people to this important occupation,” says Larry Cote, president and CEO of CINDE.

“The anecdotal evidence to date suggests we’re not because all industry sectors are hollering for people.”

Much of the current workforce is nearing retirement and the existing hiring climate has created a Catch-22 where many employers won’t consider job applicants without some level of NDT certification from the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB).

Obtaining certification, however, requires on-the-job experience, according to Trends in NDT Certification and Training in Canada, a report written in 2011 by Cote, P.K. Yuen, the manager of Natural Resource Canada’s Non-Destructive-Testing Certification Body, and John Zirnhelt, a senior engineer from Ponteca Inc.

“It’s the employers and owner/operators that need to step up, not just the certification body and training organizations,” says Cote, pleading: “If you’re in an industry with high demand and a reasonable profit margin, please invest in the training and development of a competent workforce.”

Cote notes some employers that do offer entry-level positions feel frustrated when employees don’t stick around after obtaining enough work experience to get certified.

However, this problem could be minimized if more companies offered entry-level jobs to new graduates.

In early May, Cote attended a meeting of the CGSB 48/2 Committee that sets the national standard for the qualification and certification of NDT personnel in Canada. Based on numbers from the NRCan NDT CB, the committee estimates there are about 5,200 CGSB-certified professionals in Canada—not enough to keep pace with the demand based on feedback from some committee members, he notes.

The lack of certified personnel has current NDT inspectors working lots of overtime, Cote says, and there is general agreement that employee burn-out is increasingly an issue.

It appears to be a worldwide problem, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan, based in Mountain View, California.

“What is happening in the industry is that there are qualified NDT technicians coming out of the training institutes. However, they do not possess the necessary skill-set or experience to perform high-quality inspection jobs,” says Nikhil Jain, an analyst with the firm.

“The skills shortage are related to knowing how to perform the inspection and how to interpret and analyze the data collected, and a lot of it comes down to experience,” he notes.

Cote agrees gaining field experience is crucial to reliable inspections. It’s often a physically and mentally demanding job, and inexperienced NDT inspectors are more likely to miss a serious defect in a new part or flaw in a piece of equipment nearing the end of its life.

The potential consequences of a missed or wrong inspection could be catastrophic to safety, the environment and the financial bottom-line. Even experienced operators are more likely to make errors if they’re overworked and mentally fatigued, he says.

Another factor contributing to the skills shortage is the amount and type of training available from colleges, industry organizations, private career colleges and employers.

Cote’s report cites an increase in self-guided, computer- and Internet-based education that is eroding the most effective way of learning NDT techniques: hands-on, classroom-based, training at organizations that deliver practical labs for students along with their academic lectures.

Graduates may not be receiving their education in a way that best prepares them for NDT certification exams and the workforce, he explains.

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The new standard:

However, if the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) technical committee chooses to adopt the latest version of the ISO 9712 standard as-is, inspectors would receive their certification in two years rather than five.

As Manager of the Non-Destructive Testing Certification Body for Natural Resources Canada, P.K. Yeun does not have a say if the standard is adopted. Because NRCan is the implementer of the standard he cannot vote but he noted the two sides of the argument.

“The nature of people is that they may start the process and not complete it because it takes such a long period of time,” Yeun noted.

On the other hand, reducing the time-to-certification would mean recently certified inspectors would be put on the job with less experience than in the past.

An argument in favour of adopting the new standard would be to improve worker mobility and to facilitate global harmonization of standards. Yeun says the move towards a single standard started in last year and in Europe there are talks of shedding the equivalent EN 473 in in favour of the ISO 9712.

NDT inspectors certified in other countries under the same version of the standard could more easily take employment Canada and vice-versa.  The technical committee will vote before the year is out.

Revamping recertification:  

Another element of the ISO 9712 — one that Canada has already committed to adopting — is developing and implementing a proper recertification program, Yeun said.

“It means people need to be retested and doublechecked in their competencies,” he said. “This is something we are planning to implement in the near future.”

Right now recertification is simply an administrative procedure inspectors must undertake every three years. Some in the industry argue the recertification process is unfair because other trade professions are not subjected to this type of scrutiny.

Proponents of inspector retesting argue the consequences of making an error — a bridge collapse, a plane crash, a nuclear reactor failure, or pipeline rupture, for example — could be so devastating that it would be irresponsible not to ensure NDT inspectors maintain their competencies.

As a side note, the nuclear and aerospace industries already require inspectors to receive further training than NRCAN provides. Yeun said NRCAN isn’t going to branch out into providing industry-specific areas, but will stick with its broad-sectored approach with the goal of training inspectors to work in myriad industries. However, inspectors working in those industries still need to recertify with NRCAN.

Another argument for requiring recertification every few years is to ensure inspectors are up-to-snuff on the new technologies. Advancements in recent years — particularly in ultrasonics and radiography — have resulted in an influx of new testing equipment.

Yeun said NRCAN is establishing technical committees on how to incorporate some of these emerging technologies, such as ultrasonic phased array and digital radiography — the two largest product segments according to data from Frost & Sullivan--into the National Certification Program.

Staying in the industry:

The good news is experienced inspectors seem to be staying in the industry, Yeun said. Every year NRCAN looks at the number of inspectors that choose to recertify. Its data shows attrition rate in 2012 was 10.1 per cent, compared with 15.8 per cent

in 2006.

The rate decreased to 14.5 per cent in 2007, increased to 15 per cent in 2008 and dropped to 11.7 per cent in 2009, and has been decreasing since.

“There seems to be — maybe as a reaction to the demand — less people leaving the trade, or retiring early,” Yeun noted.

It’s too early to tell whether this will be a long-standing trend, he noted. Attrition rates could increase again once the spike in demand is over.

But as the continued reluctance of employers to hire and train less experienced inspectors continues, finding a way to get critical hands-on experience may be tougher than doing the job itself.