Edif Plant Inspector Career and Training Guide

The plant inspection and
integrity industry
Career and training guide 2015/16 edition
Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide
Prologue
Edif ERA, a global engineering, consultancy and training

company and part of the Edif Group (www.edifgroup.com),
has acquired Matthews Engineering Training Ltd., a market
leading provider of ASME and API certified inspector courses.
The courses are aimed at individuals and smaller contractors,
and can easily be tailored to meet the needs of blue chip and
corporate clients for in-house courses.
Contents
Section
Page
1. The inspection and integritybusiness
2. Inspection markets: worldwide
3. Inspection industry structure
4. Career groups and progression
10
5. Inspector terms and conditions thefacts
16
6. Works-vs-in-service inspection
22
7. Office-vs-site inspection roles
25
8. Skills and qualifications
28
9. Inspection skills selfassessment
32
10. Your training options
40
11. Engineering inspection careers: some advice

for newentrants
54
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1. The inspection and

integritybusiness
The inspection and integrity business
3 An appreciation of risk
3 Knowledge of damage mechanisms and severity
3 Fitness-for-purpose assessment of corroded items
3 Advisory reports to owners/users or H&S authorities
Plant inspection involves the basic activities of:

Inspecting plant (mainly pressure equipment) for mechanical condition
Checking equipment for compliance with statutory regulations (such as the UK
Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSRs) in the UK or ASME/API codes in
countries that have adopted these)
Checking against technical standards, specifications and published documents
Inspecting for corrosion, defect and damage, and providing written reports on
theresults
3 Inspecting plant for mechanical condition

(not just welds)
Integrity Engineer
3 Basic code calculations

3 Knowledge of codes and standards
3 Accurate and decisive reporting
While plant inspection often involves the inspection of welds and Non-Destructive
Testing (NDT), it is a very different, more complex discipline than NDT. It has different
skill requirements, higher level technical content and a fundamentally different
Plant Inspector
structure of qualifications.
Integrity engineering incorporates plant inspection but extends the role to include:
A deeper understanding of equipment damage (corrosion) mechanisms and failure
modes covered in documents such as API 571
Specifying suitable Non-Destructive Examination (NDE) methods and scopes to
ensure expected damage mechanisms are found
NDT Technician
/Weld Inspector
Using inspection results to decide Fitness-For-Purpose (FFP) using more complex

methodologies and documents such as API 579, ASME B31G and DNV RP-101
Career
progression
The inspection and integrity business is made necessary by the combined

requirements of plant owners/users, purchasers and statutory authorities who share
the common aim that plant is constructed, operated and managed in a safe manner.
Fig.1 shows the traditional progression for people involved in this industry.
Fig.1 The plant inspection and integrity business

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Inspection markets: worldwide
2. Inspection markets: worldwide
Inspector salaries in the Texan Gulf region are well established and less volatile than
those in Canada, Alaska and many other countries in the world.
South America
Upstream and downstream O&G industry is developing with inspection practices
following mainly the USA model.
The in-service inspection market divides fairly neatly into worldwide blocks,
characterised mainly by the maturity of the upstream Oil & Gas (O&G) business and
its downstream refining and product processing activities. Mature areas have evolved
well-established requirements for in-service inspectors and, some integrity and
corrosion engineers roles have become specialised and have developed some roles
into more specialised ones for integrity engineers and corrosion engineers.
Newer, developing country markets have a quickly developing, enthusiastic
requirement for basic inspection skills. Owing to their rate of growth, these markets
often lack experience and, therefore, they place reliance in acquiring inspectors with
existing recognised qualifications.
Worldwide, the main breakdown is broadly as follows:
Europe
The offshore upstream market is led by the requirement for offshore inspectors in
the UK/Norway North Sea. Inspection roles and numbers are well established but this
market has an ageing inspector workforce. Tight legislative requirements support the
need for regular plant inspections. The onshore downstream refinery market is very
mature with few, if any, refineries less than 30 years old. Inspector manning is much
lower than offshore, more specialised and segmented, and harder to get into without
higher academic qualifications.
Norway and Holland have their own national inspector certification schemes.
USA and Canada

North America is a steady, mature market for mainly API-qualified inspectors rather
than those with higher level academic qualifications.
4
Central Asia and Russia

Ex-Russian republics O&G business is developing steadily with onshore and offshore
facilities. Overseas contractors have a large presence in the supply of inspectors
working on rotation contracts. Statutory requirements and inspection technical
practices are highly variable between countries and contracts.
North Africa
This region has developing gas markets with heavy involvement by contracting
companies operating as offshoots from UK/Europe gas utility companies. Emphasis
is on integrity engineer specialisms rather than volume supply of plant inspectors.
Inspection practices follow a combination of European and US ASME/API codes.
Central Africa
The central African oil industry is mainly served by US petrochemical operators
inspectors on rotation contracts. Countries vary a lot and situations can change
quickly. Inspection practices follow mainly the USA model using ASME/API codes.
Middle East
Saudi Arabia and UAE have a mature market for inspectors. Inspector contracts
are mainly long-term residential positions rather than rotation contracts. Overall,
expatriate inspector numbers are steadily declining. Academically qualified engineers
are not in short supply.
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Inspection industry structure
Far East
3. Inspection industry structure
A steadily developing area with young and academically qualified workforce in

both inspector and integrity/corrosion engineering roles. There are a few roles for
experienced expatriates in higher positions.
Australia/NZ
This is rapidly becoming a growth area in LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) and general
offshore industry. There is a shortage of qualified/experienced inspectors, producing
active recruitment from the UK and other EU countries. Australia has its own
inspector certification scheme (AICIP) which is not extensively recognised in other
countries, so the situation is developing quickly.
New Zealand has a similar national scheme but there is also an increasing recognition
of ASME and API certificates and practices in the O&G industry.
Structure of the business

Fig.2 shows the basic structure of the plant inspection business. The breakdown
is based almost entirely on the technical complexity of the inspection tasks and is
tracked fairly accurately by the technical ability, experience, and pay and conditions of
the people working within it.
Insurance company inspections

These involve the periodic inspections of onshore pressure systems carried out by
the 1000 or so inspectors (sometimes called surveyors) who work for the so-called
insurance inspection companies. Most are simple visual inspections for minimum
compliance with the UK Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSRs). In most cases,
the inspections themselves have precisely nothing to do with insurance although a lot
of people still think that they do.
Surveyors generally do multiple inspections per day; spend a lot of time driving
between sites and produce minimalist generic inspection reports to a predetermined
pro-forma style. Some are staff employees, some are self-employed, and most are
over 40, having gained their main engineering experience working somewhere else.
Petroleum/petrochemical industry inspections

These divide fairly neatly into onshore and offshore based inspectors. The two
areas have slightly different profiles.
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The inspection industry

structure
Inspection industry structure
Offshore inspection engineers are based offshore on either a 23 week rota (North
Sea) or a longer, perhaps 48 week rota in Africa, Asia, Russia, etc. Work involves
inspection of fairly complex systems of pipework, vessels and valves. Reports may be
quite detailed, involving corrosion and fitness-for-purpose issues or may be of a more
simplified pro-forma type, depending on the company.
Onshore inspection engineers work in refineries, petrochemical plants and other
parts of the downstream oil/gas chain. Broadly speaking, they have a higher level of
academic training than their offshore equivalents and their inspection work tends
to be more heavily concentrated into shutdown or turnaround inspections. Selfemployed or agency inspectors are often employed during these shutdowns to make
up the numbers.
Pressure equipment
Agency inspectors
Rotating equipment
Agency inspectors work for inspection agencies under either self-employed or staff
(pay as you earn (PAYE)) status doing any of the above jobs. The only difference is
their employer, the agency, hires them out to plant owners on temporary or semipermanent contracts where they do more or less the same job as the plant owners
staff inspectors.
Offshore/Marine equipment
Storage tanks
Lifting equipment
Boiler plant
Insurance surveyors
Onshore inspection engineers work in refineries, petrochemical plants, and other

parts of the downstream oil/gas chain. Broadly speaking, they have a higher level of
academic training than their offshore equivalents and their inspection work tends
to be more heavily concentrated into shutdown or turnaround inspections. Selfemployed or agency inspectors are often employed during these shutdowns to make
up the numbers.
Fig.2
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Career groups and progression
4. Career groups and progression
Historically, almost no-one starts their engineering career in plant inspection. Of the
few that do, perhaps with high hopes that their first degree or MSc will give them a
stepping stone to greatness, most leave within a year or two to pursue some other
career path typically project engineering, corrosion engineering or the more loosely
defined integrity engineering. Notwithstanding this, there are four main career entry
routes (see Fig.3).
Integrity Engineer
The NDT technician route
Specialist Inspector
In-service
plant inspection
A lot of inspectors move into inspection from an NDT technicians background. They
have formal NDT qualifications (CSWIP, PCN, ASNT, etc.) and have gained practical
experience by involvement with rope access activities, welding, fabricated structures
and pressure equipment. NDT technicians also benefit from the experience of dealing
with plant manufacturers, contractors and operators, and they have an appreciation
of the ways that they all interact with each other. Areas of weakness may include:
Lack of experience of the operational aspects of engineering plant
Uncertainty of technical knowledge in some areas of plant design, degradation/
failure mechanisms, and academic topics such as fitness-for-purpose assessment
Adapting from the world of NDT; this is based around hard-edged and well-defined
techniques, procedures and defect acceptance criteria, compared with the multiple
shades of grey world of in-service inspection which makes more use ofjudgement.
NDT
Technician
Plant
Operator
Graduate/
Project
Engineer
New
Construction
Inspection/QA
Fig.3 The main career routes into inspection

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The plant operator route
In common with the other inspection career routes, the graduate entry route has
weaknesses. Typically, these are:
Traditionally, many plant inspectors started their careers in plant operations in power,
process or marine engineering. The solid levels of plant experience and academic
achievement required form a sound technical background for an eventual move
into plant inspection. Although it has not disappeared completely, this route has
depleted steadily over the past 20 years. Weaknesses in inspectors coming from this
routeinclude:
Poor knowledge of important design codes, regulations and statutory aspects
Limited experience of industry-specific technical issues (materials, designs, etc.)
They are often generalists with a wide, but shallow, knowledge base.
In recent years, career benefits (mainly salaries) for competent operations technicians
and engineers in onshore power/process/petrochemical industries have become
quite attractive, thereby, discouraging salary-related career moves into onshore
plantinspection.
The graduate/project engineer route

This is the most modern career route into plant inspection. It will probably grow and,
perhaps, become the dominant route in the future. It has its root in the graduate
engineer, employed by construction, contracting or process/petrochemical utility
organisations. Graduates will typically start their engineering career in a specific
project engineering roles or as part of an in-company graduate training scheme
involving experience of several different jobs over a period of a few years. At some
point, they take on the role of project engineer for a specific project, involving the
construction, refurbishment or operational aspects of plant.
It is the wide responsibilities of the project engineer that often kick-start a graduate
engineers interest in plant inspection. Inspection plays a part in most plant projects
and the technical complexity (and difficulties) of the role soon become apparent.
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Lack of hands-on engineering experience

Poor initial appreciation of the ways that technical and management disciplines
interleave together rather than act alone
In practice, these weaknesses have a short timescale. Graduates that have survived
the selection procedures of major companies have the cognitive ability to absorb
large amounts of technical information and so learn very quickly. They also have the
advantage that they are not encumbered by the restricted mindset of having worked
in a single role. These clear advantages have to be taken in context. In most cases, the
latent technical power of graduates is never fully received into the world of in-service
inspection; instead, it is used as a technical stepping-stone towards progression in
other disciplines that have a higher management profile.
Crossover from other specialisms

Inspectors involved in the pre-purchase shop inspection of new equipment may want
to cross into in-service inspection, chasing its higher salaries and better prospects.
This can be difficult: shop inspection is more about the niceties of documentation and
procedures than corroded metal and damaged vessels, and such inspectors may find
a step change in their knowledge base is required to make a successful transition.
Specialists in predominantly non-technical subjects (such as Quality Assurance (QA),
contract management and procurement) are also found in inspection. Although it
is not uncommon to find in-service inspectors with this type of background, they
frequently struggle to meet the level of technical appreciation necessary to deal
with inspection issues that arise in complex plant, and they find the job difficult
andstressful.
Taken together, these four routes make up the majority of paths taken by technicians
and engineers who become inspectors. Although the routes themselves have
different backgrounds and involve different types of people, the technical skills that
have to be acquired to do the job of inspection do not vary that much.
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Career progression in the inspection industry
this and a number of different institutions accredited to award it. Once this is out
of the way, your climb up the inspection career ladder will be most influenced by
the level of technical knowledge that you can acquire via a combination of training
and experience. To keep on climbing, you have to keep on learning, thereby, placing
yourself ahead of the majority who cant be bothered.
Once you get a secure foothold on the in-service inspection ladder, you will find
fewer barriers to progression than in many other parts of the industry. To climb to
the best positions in large oil companies, you will need higher technical qualifications
because that is how they think. This in itself is no longer the barrier it once was.
Degree courses are plentiful, some much easier than others, and course length and
attendance required is variable. Overall, there is something to fit all, for anyone who
has the determination to register for a course and put in the effort. See Section 11 of
this Guide for some advice at passing degree courses.
Excluding the oil majors, in many inspection companies, a degree qualification will
not give you any particularly special status. An institution membership grade such as
Incorporated Engineer (I Eng) will be just as good. There are several ways to achieve
CURRENT
POSITION
CURRENT DUTIES
CURRENT
QUALIFICATIONS
PROGRESSION EMPHASIS
SHOULD BE ON
New construction
shop inspector
Agency or independent
witnessing staged inspections
involving weld inspection,
pressure tests and QA/
documentation reviews
NDT/weld inspection/
QA qualifications. Some
manufacturing experience
Successfully transferring
disciplines from shop to
in-service inspections
insurance company
in-service inspector
Home-based. Multiple local

daily visits for lifting/minor
pressure equipment
Plant operation and general

engineering experience,
possibly leading to I Eng
Inspection Engineer
for land based
owner-user operator
Refinery or plant-based.
Planning and performance
of inspections during
plant shutdowns
Offshore NDE/
Inspection Technician
Fully mobile
ex-patriate inspector
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Having a set of career targets and objectives is a good idea. Career trajectories do
vary, depending on your starting point, and it makes sense not to jump too far, too
fast. Steady progression is best, as it is more likely to be sustainable. Fig.4 shows
realistic career progression routes from five different starting positions. This also
shows our recommendation for short- and medium-term career goals, and the best
training course with which to start.
Fig.4 Routes for progressing up the inspection career ladder from
various starting points in the engineering industry
RECOMMENDED
STARTING POINT
RECOMMENDED
23 YEAR TARGET
REALISTIC 5 YEAR
OBJECTIVE
Adapting to the different

discipline and wider scope
of in-service inspection
ASME Level 1 Plant

Inspector qualification
A secure staff position

in in-service inspection
building up experience
Permanent/contract
position as an inspector
of major systems in
heavy industrial/process
applications
Expanding your technical

scope to access higher value
inspection work
Adapting to dealing
with inspection situations
with highly informed owners/
users who may dispute your
knowledge and conclusions
ASME Level 1 Plant

Inspector qualification.
Boiler Inspection and
PRV training
Obtaining credibility as an
inspector of major systems
in heavy industrial/
process applications
Permanent/contract
position with plant owners/
user with increasing
technical knowledge and
responsibility
I Eng or equivalent level.

Possibly BSc/BEng level with
good technical knowledge
of plant operations and
maintenance
Building high level reporting

and analysis skills to supplement
your technical knowledge
Self-motivation to expand
your technical skills in
difficult areas outside your
immediate comfort zone
ASME Level 2 qualification.

API 579 FFP training course.
NIII (DNV-RP-G103)
training
Becoming familiar
with detailed FFP and
NII assessments
Technical senior
management position
Offshore 3/2 rotation

position. Rope access/NDE
work on structures, vessels
and pipework
Rope access, NDE/weld

inspector qualifications plus
offshore specific safety
courses etc
Acquiring technical knowledge

in equipment and inspection
codes outside the NDE field.
Obtaining qualifications to
demonstrate additional
capabilities
Progressing from NDE to

the wider and complex
world of equipment damage
mechanisms, design and
inspection codes and thorough
inspection reporting
ASME Level 1 Plant

Inspector qualification
Appointment in Offshore
Inspection Engineer
(OIE) position
Capability of handling
overseas rotation position
at upstream or downstream
petrochemicals industry
facility
Overseas 28/28 rotation

at upstream or
downstream petrochemicals
industry facility
Varied engineering
background plus possibly
job specific ASME L1 or API
510/570/653 qualification
Increasing your knowledge

of new plant and equipment
types to increase your
flexibility between industries
Continuing to expand your

knowledge when it may not
currently appear necessary
in your current position
ASME Level 1 Plant

Inspector qualification.
Additional API 510/570/653
certificates
At least 2 API certified

inspector certificates
supplemented by ASME
Level 2 for its detailed
reporting capabilities
A greater choice of
employers/locations in which
you will be accepted as
having desirable knowledge
and qualifications
KEY CHALLENGES
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Inspector terms and conditions thefacts
5. Inspector terms and conditions

thefacts
Plant inspection, because of its wide variety, is characterised by a similarly wide
spread of salary terms and conditions. The relationship between them varies over
time and with industry activity but the underlying pattern is fairly well established so it
doesnt vary that much.
One significant feature is lack of dependence of inspector terms and conditions on
the economic cycle of growth or recession. Economic activity has some effect on
work available for new construction shop inspectors as manufacturing activity goes
up or down but for in-service inspection it has less real effect. Plants still continue to
operate during recession and, therefore, require inspection.
On a global scale, the predominant driver of oil industry inspection budgets is the
wholesale price of crude oil. Bits of geopolitics and the odd conflict here and there
cause local effects but problems in one country simply mean that industry focus
moves elsewhere until things calm down. High oil prices mean greater revenue for
both upstream and downstream sectors, so inspection budgets, which are a fairly
small percentage of the total cost base anyway, feel less pressure. When oil prices fall,
there is a delay in any corresponding reduction of operators budgets. Oil companies
are well used to operating in a cyclic market and their activities may not change at
all as they know the price will soon rise again. This dampens out any dramatic cyclic
swings in inspection budgets, enabling the industry to operate on a surprisingly
evenkeel.
Terms &
conditions
Plant inspection
qualifications
In this environment, inspector salary terms and conditions find their own level based
on supply and demand. Individual conditions vary but the overall pattern shown in
Figs. 5, 6, and 7 emerges. This is based on conditions for inspectors working in and
from the UK but it is not that much different elsewhere.
Fig.5 Inspectors terms and conditions

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Inspector roles
work, life and holidays
Inspector salaries
WORK
HOLIDAY
% Annual average salary*
300%
Home-based
Competent Person
Inspector
200%
100%
Plant
Inspector
Inspector role
2 week/2 week
offshore rotation
20,000 miles per year
Home-based
new-construction
shop inspector
28 day/28 day
overseas rotation
Pressure/Lifting
Equipment
Home-based
insurance surveyor
inspector
50-60 hrs per week

on site for 16 weeks
per year
40 hrs per week for

48 weeks per year
Site-based in-service
plant inspector
Fig.6
18
Site-based
integrity engineer
Offshore-based
inspection engineer:
UK or expatriate
*The average annual salary
in the UK for 2012 was
approximately 28,000
Fig.7
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Home-based new construction shop inspectors salary levels are generally the
lowest, ranging from about 110% to 140% of the national average salary. Inspection
agencies and companies all tender against each other for contracts, competing
almost entirely on price, as they are all drawing from the same pool of inspectors.
This keeps salaries down. Shop inspection agency positions are not too difficult to
secure if you have decent engineering and QA experience. Working hours are routine,
and many jobs come with a company car because of the daily travellingrequired.
Offshore-based inspection engineer roles offer a unique balance of technical

capability versus reward. Salaries can be as high as 200300% of the national average
salary and the working schedule is attractive, varying from 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off
to 2 weeks on, 3 weeks off, depending on the operator. Employment status can be
either self-employed/agency or full-time staff.
Home-based insurance surveyor terms and conditions are much the same as those
for shop inspectors. In the larger companies, surveyors may work on an inspection
points system, requiring them to complete a minimum number of inspections per
week. The work involves mainly visual inspections of minor pressure plant and
lifting equipment items, and is regular, repetitive and fairly secure. About 100 small
independent companies and agencies compete for the smaller contracts that the few
larger ones dont bother with.
Site-based in-service plant inspectors salary terms are generally higher than those
for home-based roles. Once a plant inspector has moved up out of the NDT/weld
inspection only bracket then site work is available on either a permanent basis or for
periodic plant shutdowns or turnarounds. These can last anything from 3 weeks to
6 months, as multiple plant assets are shut down and inspected in sequence. Salary
equivalents are higher, depending on the role, ranging from about 125% to 170% of
the national average salary. Higher incomes are available where difficult locations,
working conditions or experience requirements are involved. You can expect working
hours to be long and hard and you wont be going home at 5pm.
In overseas developing countries (either onshore or offshore), salaries are

comparable to the above but leave rotation will be different. A 28-day on/off rotation
is common. Traditional annual expatriate positions are still available overseas but for
the best salaries you will need to work in the newer oil producing countries rather
than the traditional Middle East destinations.
Onshore-based inspection engineer roles exist to service the offshore inspection
industry. These include the less technical QA/planning-type roles to corrosion
engineer and inspection technical authority positions that most offshore inspection
companies have. Salaries are again high but heavily influenced by supply and demand
for the people with the correct skills who will accept an office-based role without the
holidays available on an offshore schedule. To progress to the highest onshore salary
levels, you will need to move into a management position, dealing with people as well
as related technical issues. Some enjoy this and some dont.
Site-based integrity engineer roles are a progression for some plant inspectors.
These have higher technical qualification requirements and you need a wide and
proven technical knowledge base. If you dont have this you will be found out fairly
quickly. The rewards are much higher; 180220% of the average national salary is a
reasonable expectation with some of the larger companies. Refineries generally offer
the highest salaries but have the most stringent requirements. In return, the hours
are again long and inconvenient and you will be expected to show a high commitment
to the role rather than just using it as a stepping stone to elsewhere.
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Works-vs-in-service inspection
6. Works-vs-in-service
inspection
Fig.8 shows the differences between the two inspection roles.

Technically, the knowledge requirements for in-service inspection are wider than
those of construction inspection. Once a piece of equipment has been put into
use, it is subject to various degradation mechanisms corrosion, fatigue, creep and
straightforward wear and tear that are not an issue with new equipment.
With most equipment, the issues of integrity and FFP are made more complex by
the effects of these degradation mechanisms. As a rule, the more complex the
design and construction of a piece of equipment, the greater is the complexity of the
effects of its degradation in use. This means that, for complex equipment such as
turbine pumps, pressure systems, etc., the assessment of FFP and integrity becomes
progressively more difficult as time progresses. Worse still, the effects of most
degradation mechanisms are not linear and so general levels of uncertainty and risk
increase unpredictably during a piece of equipments operational life.
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Review material certificates
New construction
shop inspectors
From a technical viewpoint, the scope of construction inspection is actually wider than
that of in-service inspection. This is because most items of engineering plant are not
covered by in-service legislative requirements. Items such as pressure equipment,
lifting equipment, some structural items, vehicles, etc. are subject to in-service
inspection legislation in most developed countries but vast amounts of other types of
engineering items are not. In-service inspection of these excluded items is, therefore,
an option rather than being mandatory and is left to the owners or users to either do
it or not, as they think fit.
Witness routine material tests
Review welder qualifications

Check welding and NDT results
Witness pressure tests
Check compliance with specified manufacturing code
Sign off documentation packages
VESSEL GOES INTO SERVICE

Understand how plants work
In-service
plant inspectors
There is a clear boundary between the activities of in-service inspection and those
of new construction inspection. Construction inspection is the inspection of new
equipment during manufacture and its pre-use commissioning on site. Similar to
in-service inspection, construction inspection is influenced by technical codes and
standards (and for some equipment, statutory requirements) but the main drivers are
the commercial requirements and preferences of the purchaser.
What inspectors do
Assess corrosion mechanisms

Evaluate inspection frequencies
Use initiative to recommend repairs
Detailed technical reports
FFP calculations and assessments
In-service inspection is more varied.

The technical scope is wider, with more
freedom of opinion and interpretation.
Fig.8
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Office-vs-site inspection roles
In-service inspection rarely has the degree of predictability that can (sometimes)
exist in new construction inspection. For this reason, in-service inspection rarely
involves quantitative aspects alone; qualitative techniques such as risk-based analysis
have to be used in order to handle the uncertainty. This is what makes in-service
inspectioninteresting.
7. Office-vs-site inspection roles
Plant inspection careers can involve either office-based or site roles (see Fig.9).
Surprisingly, there is less time-based promotion progression from site inspector
to office-based Integrity Engineer or Technical Authority work than in many other
engineering roles. Many office-based inspection engineers have very little practical
inspection experience and they prefer to concentrate on computer-based RBI
analysis, preparation of inspection plans and the reviewing of reports rather than
crawling around inside vessels.
Most office-based inspection roles involve some visits to plants but this is very
different to a job which involves day-to-day hands-on inspection. Hands-on inspectors
invariably have the best experience in finding corrosion mechanisms in real vessels
and pipework, but they may take the easy option in handing over their findings to
others for diagnosis of FFP conclusions.
This split of responsibilities is most prevalent in the offshore industry where
owner/operator clients are often the driving force in supporting their contractors
to employ a large number of office-based integrity/corrosion engineer support
staff. In European companies, these roles generally require an engineering
degree. Educational requirements for offshore plant inspectors are lower and
NDT qualifications, supplemented by plant inspector certificates, take priority over
academic excellence. This has a lot in common with the US model where API Certified
Inspector certificates take priority.
Onshore downstream facilities have a different bias. Overall, their plant inspectors
have a higher academic level so the split between plant inspector and integrity
engineer is more blurred, and the role of the plant inspector wider and more
technically challenging. Refineries, in particular, frequently employ inspectors with the
best and most usable mixture of hard, practical engineering knowledge and technical
analysis skills. In European companies, these roles are difficult to get into without an
engineering degree or similar higher qualification as well as more practically-based
plant inspector certificates.
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Office-vs-site inspection roles
Job titles vary between company and country, but some typical titles that may be used
for inspection roles are:
Office-vs-site roles
Predominantly office-based
Integrity Engineer
Technical Authority
Corrosion Engineer
Offshore
(upstream) roles
Risk-based Inspection (RBI) Engineer

Pipework Engineer
Offshore
Office
Inspectors rarely
visit the office
Planning and
spreadsheets
Vessel Engineer
Storage Tank Engineer
Inspection Support Engineer
Lots of
meetings
Inspection Co-ordinator
Work-pack Engineer
Site-based (onshore/offshore operating plant)

Plant Inspector
Onshore
(downstream) roles
Offshore Inspection Engineer

API-certified Inspector (API 510/570/653)
Inspection Technician
Refineries and
petrochemical facilities
Engineer Surveyor (normally used by insurance companies who also do low-level

inspection of pressure and lifting equipment)
Inspection and asset management

roles are more combined
Fig.9
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Skills and qualifications
8. Skills and qualifications
A few individual countries have developed their own programmes and preferences
for inspector certification. Some are legal, some quasi-legal, and for others their
status is difficult to determine from outside. There may also be some crossover with
new construction inspection or the nuclear and/or offshore industries, and the extent
of the requirements vary from individual inspector certification to a more general
system of audit or registration. The main ones are:
Why is inspector competence an awkward issue?

There are two main reasons. First, the technical scope of the subject is so wide an
inspector may be required to inspect anything from a simple low-pressure garage air
receiver to a highly dangerous process reactor operating under corrosive conditions
at high pressures. Second, most of the statutory legislation that governs in-service
inspection relies on the inspection industry practising a high degree of self-regulation,
it is charged with deciding the competence of its inspectors itself rather than
requirements being externally imposed. The resulting freedom means that each
inspection organisation takes a different view of what qualifications and experience its
inspectors require, and how their competence will be assessed.
European qualifications for plant inspectors are a fairly recent innovation. Whereas
the USA has a long-established system of inspector qualification (The American
Petroleum Institute (API) certificate programme), the EU has no such uniform legal
requirement. In recent years, however, pressure from enforcement authorities,
accreditation bodies and plant owner/user clients themselves has brought the
technical competence of plant inspectors into focus. Existing certification schemes
limited to weld inspection and NDT disciplines do not fit well with the much wider
discipline of pressure systems inspection. Why should they? Its a different subject.
Which inspector certification schemes are around?

The situation is less extensive for in-service inspection than for pressure equipment
new construction inspection. Most of the 196 or so countries in the world have no
legally-binding requirements at all for certification of in-service plant inspectors. Plant
operating companies either decide their own requirements for their inspectors or do
whatever they need to do in order to satisfy whichever government department or
ministry is in charge of plant and personnel safety.
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The Netherlands
Norway
Malaysia
Singapore
Australia
New Zealand
Germany
China
The USA and Canada
Fig.10 shows a summary.
The USA and Canada

Most areas of North America have legal requirements for inspectors to be individually
certified. The main players are the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME),
the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the National Board of Boiler and Pressure
Vessel Inspectors (NBBPVI), presided over by the legal jurisdiction of each individual
state. Supplementary legal requirements are set or policed by the Occupational
Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and investigated by the Chemical Safety
Board (CSB) after accidents occur.
The main inspector Individual Certification Programme (ICP) for the petroleum
industry in the USA and Canada is the API ICP, covering API 510, 570 and 653. In
many states, this is a legal requirement. ASME and NBBPVI certification and certificate
programmes have comparable legal status, with preferences varying between states.
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Skills and qualifications
ASME and API certification programmes outside North America
Inspector certification
programmes worldwide
In countries outside North America these programmes have little, if any, legal
significance. They do, however, have increasing recognition because:
They are seen as useful as a benchmark qualification when there are no
othersavailable
Like it or not, the oil industry worldwide is dominated by ASME and API
constructioncodes
US-based oil companies operating in other countries are more familiar with them
than with other national certification programmes
In Europe, the acceptance of these ASME- and API-based certification (and certificate)
programmes is increasing. Some countries are more enthusiastic about adopting
them than others who prefer their European harmonised codes and standards to
ASME and API documents. Similarly, some like the ASME and API approaches to
code-based, multiple-choice question examinations and competence testing, whereas
others prefer a more measured approach.
In developing countries, the achievement of overseas certificates is likely to carry
significant weight in itself, with few questions asked about any level of competence
assessment lying behind them.
Worldwide certification
ASME L1/L2/L3 (outside of North America)
API 510/570/653 (including North America)
To conclude, on a worldwide basis, the ASME and API certificate programmes are the
main players, with increasing recognition. National schemes will continue in the few
countries that have them; some of them are technically quite good but they struggle
to gain recognition outside their country of origin.
National certification
Holland/Norway/Australia/
New Zealand/Malaysia
Fig.10
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Inspection skills self-assessment
9. Inspection skills
selfassessment
Code recognition
Engineering skills divide into many categories some of which are a good fit with the
requirements placed on a plant inspector and others which are not. Within such
a wide industry, it can be difficult to decide which level you are actually at. A lot
depends on what type of work you feel comfortable with and how much knowledge
you have of the content of published codes and standards. Self-assessment of your
own skills is always difficult; the list below does not claim to be absolutely complete or
exhaustive but it is a fairly good representation of the main skills categories that are
normally seen. Here they are do you recognise yourself?
Ability level
Experience-based
You base almost all your technical views and decisions on experience you have
gained during working in industry. You would not claim to rely on any particular
technical skills or recognised qualifications, but feel you have good knowledge of
practical engineering methods and the technical issues that go with them.
Qualifications-based
You have gained a number of academic qualifications, possibly up to degree or
MSc level. You would accept that you lack practical experience but feel that you can
compensate for this by learning quickly. You lack recognition of published codes
andstandards.
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You recognise the titles of at least five of the most commonly used published codes
and standards relevant to the discipline in which you work. You have a broad idea of
their technical philosophy and content but are not overly familiar with their individual
terminology. Realistically, you understand no more than 5% of the content of
thesedocuments.
Code familiarity
You have an easy familiarity with at least five of the most commonly used published
codes and standards relevant to the discipline in which you work; to the point where
you know the principles and scope of their content. When given a specific query, you
know where to look and can eventually find the answer without outside assistance.
You know 525% of the technical content of these documents and could stand being
questioned on it in an inspection situation.
Code implementation
You have a detailed page by page understanding of at least five of the most
commonly used published codes and standards relevant to the discipline in which
you work and are fully familiar with their content. You can explain the content to
others and make decisions on interpretation without outside assistance. You are
not worried about signing off or certificating items of pressure equipment to these
documents. Owing to your reliance on individual codes, you may be less confident
when inspection discussions stray outside the codes with which you are familiar.
Your technical comfort zone

With such a wide subject as engineering inspection, the issue of an inspectors
individual comfort zone has an important influence. There are basically three main
categories. They are given below; see if you can fit yourself into one of them.
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Secure inside your comfort zone
worlds best and most efficient learning mechanism and those who simply enjoy being
at the centre of things rather than sitting passively on the sidelines while others take
centre stage (these, of course, are the ones who mention it on their CV).
You like the warm feeling of working well within your own technical comfort
zone, however narrow this may be. Importantly, your comfort zone is
two-dimensionalcovering:
The technical subjects that you understand
Your limitations in making decisions and defending them against the views of
people who disagree
When inspection issues or questions fall within this comfort zone, you feel quite
happy, perhaps even enthusiastic, in giving answers to questions. Once an issue
moves outside it, you get worried, fall strangely silent, and are relieved to refer the
situation to someone else. Much of your experience has taken place within the
envelope of this comfort zone, and you have never thought of expanding it to several
times its current size. You prefer to tinker round the edges where the risks are lower.
Happy with limited decision-making

A fair percentage of technicians or engineers venture into inspection because of the
opportunities it offers to stray (cautiously, perhaps) outside their technical comfort
zone. This is normally coupled with a widening of their technical scope and a vision of
the resulting career progression. Hidden behind this vision, the requirement to make
technical decisions in your newly-acquired areas of expertise soon appears. Perhaps
5060% of new inspector entrants will react positively to this challenge and become
adept at making these decisions, cautiously at first, as they learn to adapt to their
new technical environment. The rest will never feel comfortable, spend a short time
avoiding the whole subject of technical decision-making, followed by a return to the
NDE, plant operations or office-based role from which they came.
Inspection provides the ideal vehicle for decision-searchers. The technical scope is
so wide that learning can be continuous and never-ending, with the comfort zone
remaining firmly on the horizon, never to be reached. That is what these people like.
Do not underestimate the importance of this assessment of your approach to the
technical comfort zone. It is as important as all your technical qualifications and
analytical abilities put together, and so if you find the subject awkward and prefer
not to think about it, you will almost certainly experience difficulties fitting into a
long-term inspection role.
Personal attributes of the inspector

It is fair to say that most people in the engineering industry would not fit easily into a
high-profile role in technical inspection. Recruited into large organisations to fill some
traditional (perhaps artificially) defined technical roles, schooled in team-working
and the search for consensus however meaningless, they find the cold world of an
inspection role just that bit too awkward. Technical argument and conflict, it seems, lie
just round every corner, with metallurgists, corrosion engineers and self-proclaimed
experts in this and that waiting to pounce at the first sign that their territory feels
under threat. If, however, you can accept this as the central territory of the inspector,
then it is useful to look at what are the main attributes that an inspector needs to
succeed in this awkward little role. Fig.11 shows the breakdown.
Active decision-searcher
If you are one of these, you thrive on making decisions. Once one decision made, it is
mentally archived and an active search resumed for another one to solve. Given that
true decision-makers are born rather than made, they divide about 30:70 into those
who realise that active decision-making (particularly getting it wrong) is one of the
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Integrity
This means many things but in inspection it means being able to stand firmly behind
your technical decisions in the face of outside influences. These influences can be
informed or misinformed, persuasive or aggressive, considered or intemperate,
well-meaning and honest or not. They are all imposters, there to be resisted in equal
measure, if you feel you are correct.
What you need to

be an inspector
Resilience
Integrity
Basic numeracy
Independence
Without this you cant reach your integrity objectives because they go hand in hand.
The level of technical resilience you can achieve is directly proportional to the level of
technical knowledge you can demonstrate during inspection discussions. Notice that
the issue is about knowledge you can demonstrate rather than that which you claim
lies behind your qualifications or gold-embossed certificates you have collected.
Independence
Perception
A broad
engineering
awareness
A methodical
approach
Listening
Focus
Analytical
ability
In most plant inspection situations, you dont have the luxury of an army of technical
advisers and experts that you can turn to for advice. Even if you belong to a company
with large technical resources, they will very often not be available to you to provide
the instant and authoritative technical response that you may need. Over time, most
inspectors find that they have to make the most of the on-site technical decisions
themselves, using the best combination of specifications, codes and standards,
reference documents and personal experience that they can assemble, often under
pressure, and always short of time. For this, you need to be able to act independently,
choosing the correct technical decision or solution from the possibilities that you
have found (yourself).
Keeping your focus
Fig.11
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Inspection situations are full of opinions, diversions, topical or interesting side issues,
and tempting paths of circle and spiral that lead nowhere. It can be very easy to get
misled by all of this so inspection is about keeping your focus on the main issues. The
fact that the discussions are predominantly technical helps but it is still a key point.
This is one attribute that can improve quite quickly as an inspector builds up his/her
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experience or, equally, drifts away at the expense of looking for some easy consensus
solution that will offend no-one, even if it does not achieve the real objective of the
inspection visit or discussion.
Basic numeracy
Listening
Inspectors do better if they spend more time listening than talking. Unless you
have infinite time to absorb the content of hundreds of published documents
and standards, a lot of the relevant technical information that you need will come
from other people during inspection discussions. To make the best use of this, an
inspector needs the ability to listen and then pick out the relevant points from the
casual discussion, misguided opinion and technical noise.
Basic maths finds its way into many in-service (and new construction)
inspections for uses such as:
Minimum thickness calculations (all types of pressure equipment)
Material properties (carbon equivalent, PREN number, etc.)
and more complex applications such as:
Pump tests
Rotating machinery performance tests
Vibration and balancing
This is a subset of listening. It involves picking out the technical truth from the
elements of technical persuasion that will inevitably come your way. Most technical
inspection situations are sufficiently complex to have several convincing-sounding
technical solutions, but some will have weaknesses or involve some hidden
compromise that you will only discover later. As with technical focus, this is an
attribute that gets easier with experience, assuming you have the necessary mental
processing power to hold it.
Inspectors who cant (or wont) do basic maths really are at a major career
disadvantage. Day by day you will find yourself in situations where you are forced
either to rely on the calculations of others or remain suspiciously silent in the hope
that your inability will not be noticed. Over time, it is impossible to ignore calculations
completely and some inspection contracts contain lots of them, often related to
ASME/API code compliance checking or Fitness-For-Service (FFS) assessments. This
is a major area of self-improvement that inspectors can adopt to help their own
situation. The level of maths required for inspections can be learned, with the correct
instruction, by almost anyone with a mechanical or technical background as long as
they have the urge to try.
Using a methodical approach
A broad engineering awareness
For finding your way through an inspection situation to the correct decision, raw
intuition works fine but a methodical approach is better. The ability to work through
an issue, technical specification or inspection plan step by step, point by point, gives
the best structure for covering all the issues, without anything going missing. Rather
than stifling intuition, this approach actually encourages it, providing a structure onto
On balance, in-service plant inspection is more generalist than specialist. The scope
of equipment in any petroleum, petrochemical or process plant is wide; there are
hundreds of equipment types, using thousands of engineering principles and a wide
range of materials, welding and design processes. The more of these an inspector
has an appreciation of, the easier and more effective the inspection job becomes.
As usual, it gets easier with experience as long as you understand the fundamental
difference between 10 years of varied and knowledge-building experience and 6
months of blinkered experience merely repeated 20 times.
Perception and analytical skills
which an inspector can hang his or her experience and use it to best advantage.
Most technicians and engineers have a head start on this attribute as it fits with
the engineering mindset that guided their choice of career in the first place. For
the few who have lost it or turned in the other direction in pursuit of softer people
management skills, they will find their result in some wrong or missed decisions and
they will have a little more chaotic appearance to their inspection activities.
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Your training options
10. Your training options
and inspection experience, you will have a continuing credibility problem and your
technical decisions and inspection reports will be an attractive target for all to criticise
and overturn.
For more general advice on passing an engineering degree in the first place, have a
look at Section 11 of this Guide.
Before you start

In the world of plant inspection, like anywhere else, no qualification alone will
guarantee you either an entry into your first inspection job or provide a passport into
a better one. Plant inspectors who secure the most highly paid jobs are invariably
those who can combine the relevant qualifications with hard-edged experience
and the personal attributes that make for a high-level technical awareness, focus,
and decision-making ability. Sections 7 and 8 of this Guide provide you with some
guidance as to what these are and some basic self-assessment routines that you can
use to firm up your thoughts about your own abilities.
Specialised plant inspection training is important, but, before you get too carried away
with training options (or waste your time and money), please consider these few basic
points of advice:
If you are a new engineering (first or second degree) graduate with no practical
experience at all, it is highly unlikely that you will go straight into hands-on plant
inspection, become quickly established and respected, and rocket up the hierarchy,
however many inspection qualifications you obtain. The short-cuts that you seek
are, unfortunately, just not there. You are not the only person to think of that
idea. In reality, you will most likely start in a desk-based spreadsheet inspection
co-ordination role, find difficulty in getting real practical experience (as you are
so good at spreadsheets), and leave in a year or two to pursue some other noninspection discipline within which your inspection certificates will have little inherent
careervalue.
If, as a new graduate, you really do want to work in inspection, your best bet is to do a
couple of years of hands-on inspections, see if you like it, find out if you are any good,
and then pursue inspection qualifications. Without this previous hard engineering
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If you are a hands-on plant operator, NDE technician or craftsman with no

high-level academic qualifications (HND, degree, etc.), there is no need at all to be
apprehensive about moving into plant inspection. Most good plant inspectors have
more practical abilities than academic ones, and the level of mathematics analysis
skills you need can be learned. If you have a basic secondary school education and
have achieved RT/UT (radiographic testing/ultrasonic testing) certificates then you
almost certainly have the ability to do the basic maths if you are willing to put the
necessary effort in.
Once again, it is unwise to start with the hardest, most specialised courses. You
may fail and then, following several equally unsuccessful re-sits, start to question
the whole idea of your change of career. Also, in the small and closed world of
inspection employers, poor exam performances and reputations soon become
common knowledge and a hidden ceiling will slowly and quietly descend upon your
careerprospects.
The best way to start is with a general Level 1 introduction to plant inspection
training course. Lasting 45 days, this will give you a good overall picture of the
statutory regulations, published codes and documents involved in the world of plant
inspection, so you can see if you like it.
If you are a new construction shop inspector or weld inspector with a certain
amount of engineering knowledge but no experience of working on operating plant
then, once again, it is not a good idea to take the most advanced or specialised
courses first. They will not project you instantly to the top of the employment
prospects pile, because you will still lack experience and find that the restricted
syllabus of the most specialised qualifications still only covers a small part of the
technical knowledge that you need. Employers know this; it is the combination of
qualifications and in-service inspection experience that they look for. Shop inspection
experience is not hugely valued among many in-service inspector employers.
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In this position, the best advice is, again, to start with a general Level 1 introduction
to in-service plant inspection training course. This will start you on the road of
conversion to the in-service inspection field and open up your prospects to
progressing from there.
Inspector training routes
Look back to Fig.4; this summarises the most productive inspection career routes
from these, and some other, starting positions. There will always be exceptional cases
people who significantly over- or under-achieve but on balance this figure is a good
representation of how things work in reality.
Your choice of training route and the danger

of over-qualification
Your choice of training route depends on where you want it to lead. As with most
jobs, it is temptingly easy to become over-qualified, collecting every qualification
and certificate that you can in the hope that it will paint you into the picture as
the person to be chosen for the best jobs. Unfortunately, it doesnt work quite like
that. Candidates festooned with paper showers of certificates proclaiming their
excellence at every level, from hands-on weld inspector or NDE technician, through
to first and second degrees in petrochemical-sounding subjects, and topped with
specialist metallurgical or corrosion knowledge, rarely fit well into a practical in-service
inspection role. Over-qualification, particularly across a wide spectrum of academic
levels, raises questions in an employers mind about lack of direction, reliability and
the real level of commitment the candidate has to the inspection roles he or she is
looking for.
In the inspection industry, your choice of training route is, therefore, the most
important choice that you will make. It will demonstrate to others your decisionmaking and direction; over time, the correct choice will move your career along much
more efficiently in a way that suits you better.
ASME L3
Technical
Authority
API 653
API 570
ASME L2
Senior Plant
Inspector
API 510
ASME L1
Plant
Inspector
Rope
Access
NDT
Technician
Fig.12
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The two main routes

Fig.12 shows the two main routes that you can take. They are not the same; they
involve different skill-sets and these allow informed employers to differentiate
between the two and favour the one they want.
ASME Plant Inspector
Alternative routes concentrate on more specialised subjects, dealing with deeper

appreciation of specific inspection topics relating to, for example, FFP studies,
non-intrusive inspection justifications and softer topics such as RBI (Risk-Based
Inspection). These are specific skill-sets which not all in-service plant inspectors would
be able, or want, to do well.
Route 1: ASME Plant Inspector training certificate (levels 1, 2, 3)

Despite its title, this programme was developed and initiated in the UK. It is divided
into three levels, based purely on technical knowledge and expertise rather than
anything to do with supervisory or managerial experience. It is a programme which
requires candidates to demonstrate actual practical skills and understanding of the
topics included. It does not use exclusively multi-choice questions as these have
weaknesses at testing delegates true technical ability and knowledge.
API 510
Vessels
API 570
Pipework
ASME level 1 Plant Inspector

This is a 45 day course covering the essential groundwork of pressure systems inservice inspection. While it is a level 1 entry level course, it does not contain, nor is it
pitched at, the same level as visual weld inspection and NDT qualification content. It is
much broader and equipment-specific. Fig.13 shows its overall view concept.
API 653
Tanks
There are no overly restrictive entry criteria for ASME level 1 although most
candidates have some engineering experience connected with inspection or integrity
issues in some way. Academic qualifications are not essential as candidates from a
background in NDT, welding, operations/maintenance, etc. traditionally fit quite well
into this course, whether they have academic qualifications or not.
Certified Boiler
Inspector
Fig.13
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ASME level 1 centres on the requirements of statutory inspection under the relevant
regulations and, in most of our courses, contains hands-on inspection and reporting
exercises on low-pressure vessels and piping components. The course is examined
via a test paper (multi-choice and descriptive questions) plus an assessed sample
inspection report. Successful candidates receive certificates awarded by ASME.
ASME level 2 entry requirements
About 5060% of delegates find the ASME level 1 sufficient for their needs and CV
profile and will not want, or need, to progress to a higher level.
ASME Plant Inspector level 2 Senior Plant Inspector

ASME Plant Inspector level 2 is much harder than level 1. It contains the following six
topics which are studied in some depth in a 4-day intensive course:
Pressure equipment design codes and their margins
Simple FFP assessment of corroded pressure components
Inspection periods
Non-intrusive inspection and its justification
Temporary and permanent weld repairs to pressure equipment
Critical corrosion mechanisms, including sour service
It is examined by a 3-hour exam of six narrative questions requiring written
descriptive answers. The exam is held at the end of the course. Candidates are
assessed on their technical knowledge and experience. Successful candidates receive
certificates awarded by ASME.
The pass mark is 70% and the chances of achieving a pass using guesswork, learning
by rote or regurgitating the content of the course notes parrot-fashion are next
tozero.
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We require that entrants to ASME level 2 demonstrate a certain level of competence.

This may be either:
Passing ASME level 1 or a comparable entry-level plant inspection course.
Pure weld inspection/NDT qualifications from CSWIP/PCN etc. sources are not
considered eligible for entry to this course
CV assessment you must be able to demonstrate previous pressure systems
inspection experience at the necessary level. Achievement of IEng/CEng status is
an asset but BEng/MSc qualifications on their own, unless combined with relevant
experience, are given no special consideration
ASME Plant Inspector level 3 Technical Authority

This is the highest level, covering advanced inspection-related topics such as technical
disputes, expert witness reports, technical guarantee/insurance claims, etc. Only a
small percentage of inspection engineers will progress to this level. The examination
comprises complex written exercises and case study/expert reporting work requiring
good written and language skills combined with wide engineering experience.
Entry to level 3 is only via ASME level 2, personal recommendation, or our first-hand
knowledge of a candidates experience and abilities.
The ASME Plant Inspector certificate programme is the best-attended course run
by Edif ERA in the UK and some overseas countries. Progression to ASME level 2, in
particular, is seen as being one of the most effective ways to identify inspectors who
have the experience, technical knowledge and reporting ability to perform well in
inspection positions of higher responsibility.
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Route 2: The API 510/570/653 certification programmes
Which industries recognise API inspector certification?
The American Petroleum Institute (API) certification scheme for in-service inspectors
goes under the grand name of its Individual Certification Programme (ICP). Developed
in the USA, it is available in various countries in the world, including the UK. It was
originally intended for inspectors working in the upstream and downstream oil
industry although much of its technical approach adapts well to other petrochemical
and general process industries.
The API organisation has its roots in the US petrochemical industry but some other
large-scale process industries around the world recognise API inspector certification.
This is because many of the vessels and pipework systems used are built to the
ASME/API codes that form the foundation of the inspector certification examinations.
API-certified inspectors can, therefore, be found in:
It is used extensively in the USA (it is a legal requirement in many states for inspectors
to be certified) and in other countries that use API/ASME codes. In countries where it
is not a legal requirement, it just has the status of being recognised as a benchmark
standard for certification of inspectors.
Offshore/onshore oil and gas industries
Owing to their origin in the USA, the API 510/570/653 programmes are concerned
only with the verbatim written content of these code documents and other listed
US supporting documents. The examinations then act purely to test the ability of
candidates to answer a bank of multi-choice questions, based on the wording of the
code documents.
How many ICPs are there?

There are three main ICPs, each linked to a specific set of API codes relating to the
type of equipment covered. They are (see Figs.12 and 13):
API 510: Pressure vessel inspector
API 570: Pipework inspector
API 653: Storage tank inspector
These three main certification programmes have been established for many years.
There are also a few less well-known ones qualifications for ultrasonic examiners
(QUTE) and API 936 (certification for refractory personnel) are two of them, limited
mainly for use in the USA.
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Refining/petrochemicals
Power utilities
General process industry
What is the recognition of API certification in the UK/Europe?

The recognition of API inspector certification in the UK and Europe has increased over
the past few years. Two reasons for this are:
Increasing ownership of offshore facilities and onshore power/process plants by US
companies who are used to recognising API certification
Recognition that the API ICP is effective at identifying inspectors who can read code
clauses in detail, if that is a skill that is required
How do I become API certified?

In theory, to become certified as an API certified inspector, all you have to do is meet
the API entry requirements and then pass the 8-hour examination. In practice, unless
you have full familiarity with the relevant codes (1000+ pages), you will struggle unless
you prepare for the examination by enrolling on a training course.
The choice is yours. If you attend a training course, it will teach you about the
philosophy and style of the codes, and the way the exam questions are written, test
you using mock exams, etc., and prepare you to take the 8-hour API exam. Some
people decide they dont need this and make their best attempts on their own.
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When and where are the examinations held?
The Edif Training API ICP training programmes
The API examinations are held around the world on scheduled dates in March, June,
September and December every year. Candidates book in advance to attend an
examination session at which they sit the examinations for either API 570, 510 or 653.
The exam application follows onerous US-style rules and procedures with fairly strict
identity and qualifications checks.
As an established provider of inspection training courses, Edif ERA offer API

570/510/653 training programmes for API exams held in the UK and selected other
countries. These programmes are written and delivered by UK presenters and cover
all the skills required to sit for the API examinations.
As all API 510/570/653 examinations are on the same day, you cannot sit more than
one at the same time. Many of the examination sessions are organised with API
through a training provider, enabling candidates to sit for the examination either
immediately after they have completed the exam preparation training course or
within a short time.
What is the format of the training programme?
What is the technical content of the API 570/510/653 examinations?
The programme consists of two parts:

Part 1: Preliminary on-line learning training modules
Part 2: A 5+2-day full-time residential classroom course, followed by the relevant
API exam
The technical contents of the examinations are well defined and cover exclusively
API and ASME codes and standards. The content of the exam preparation training
courses reflects the scope of the examinations in order to prepare the delegates to
sit the exam.
Our first-time pass rate is 95%+, compared to a worldwide average of 5560%. We

achieve this by assessing carefully those who we accept on this route of our training
courses and ensuring they put in the necessary effort to pass the exam. If we think
you are not suitable for this route, we will recommend an alternative route rather
than encourage you to waste your time and money.
API examination entry requirements?
Route 3: Specialist technical courses
API set minimum entry requirements for candidates who want to sit for the
570/510/653 exams. This is based largely on the way that things work in the USA.
The general principle is that candidates must be employed by or under contract
to an authorised inspection agency or owner/user organisation. In practice, this is
less onerous than it sounds and inspectors in Europe or elsewhere who work under
contract (self-employed or limited company) seem to be generally considered eligible.
There is a minimum experience requirement of between 1 to 5 years, depending on
your level of technical qualifications.
Inspectors who attend our more specialised technical courses fall into three
maingroups:
Qualified engineers who want to learn specific skills to use in their current role.
They are less interested in the ASME or API certificate routes as they are already
highly technically qualified and have achieved a senior position by other means
Inspectors who have already been on either the ASME or API certificate routes and
need to fill specific holes in their technical knowledge
Technicians who require specific training in a separate subject and have no
ambitions to go down inspector certificate route (pressure relief valve the
inspection/maintenance technicians, are a good example)
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What are the specialist courses?
Inspector (Route 1) or API 510/570/653 ICP scheme (Route 2). Each has its specific
features and positive and negative points. ASME level 1 has a hands-on training
element and ASME level 2 gives merit to descriptive aspects of inspection reports.
ASME level 3 Technical Authority is the hardest course there is. The API ICP exams
are 100% US code orientated, written in US style, and have a huge syllabus, not all
of which may be necessary in your own day-to-day work. They are well accepted
worldwide by those who like the scheme but for some people they are not the best
place to start.
The main specialist courses we run at Edif ERA are shown in the list below. These
have achieved regular attendance over many years and proved beneficial in providing
delegates with the skills they require.
Inspection and maintenance of PRVs: ASME certification course
The UK Pressure System Safety Regulations (PSSRs)
Practical use of API 579 (fitness-for-service) assessments
Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) to DNV-RP-G103
Introduction to risk-based-inspection: API 580/581; ASME certification course
Pressure equipment code design
ASME PCC-2: Pipework repairs
Certified boiler inspector training and exam
Specialist courses are vocational and useful but, again, they are not a starting
point for your inspection training. Most people come to these after attending
ourothercourses.
And then, of course, you need engineering and inspection experience. The more you
get, the more employable you will become.
We run all of these both as scheduled public courses and in various combinations
and permutations as in-house courses for individual client companies; 6080per year.
Other supplementary courses we run in this category, mainly in-house courses on
request, are:
Root cause analysis
Technical report writing
Introduction to in-service inspection (non-ASME certificate)
Thickness checking of pipes/vessels
Conclusion
Taken together, these routes make up the majority of paths taken by technicians
and engineers from all backgrounds who become inspectors. Although the routes
themselves require different backgrounds and involve different types of people, the
technical skills that have to be acquired to do the job of inspection dont vary too
much. You can acquire the formal qualifications you need via either the ASME Plant
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Engineering inspection careers: some advice for newentrants
11. Engineering inspection careers:

some advice for newentrants
Over the last 100 years or so, with increased maturity of the industrial society, the
division of labour has continued, each engineering specialism soon fragmenting into
several sub-specialisms of its own, and so on. This is why the argument as to what
exactly delineates an inspector from an engineer has no real answer, and probably
never will have. It is simply too difficult to draw a line in the sand, within such a large
and varied continuum of skills, on which everyone will agree.
Introduction: what is an inspection engineer?

You can hear and read long, opinionated but largely inconclusive arguments as
to what the title inspection engineer actually means. For every view that the title
should be limited to those with a certain level of qualifications or who have attained a
prescribed level of Institution membership, there is a contrary one that says it should
relate equally to those who can prove a level of practical or craft skill or demonstrate
a number of years of inspection experience.
Unlike some countries where the designation is better defined, the situation in
the UK remains liberal and self-regulated. In many industries, the titles inspector
and inspection engineer are used freely and interchangeably, without too much
chaos being caused. Older, more traditional industries often have more definitive
internal understanding of what the titles mean to them. This owes more to their own
blinkered hierarchical structure and heritage, than to any technical interpretation that
they really ascribe to the terms. In this older view of the world, whether you are called
inspector or engineer paints, to them, a picture of whether or not you sit in an office
playing with spreadsheets or go out on site and get your hands dirty, what you wear
and how much you get paid.
Assuming you have no wish to spend the next 40 or so years worrying about a
question to which you know there is no answer, here is another way to look at it.
Think of inspectors and inspection engineers as all being part of the wide spectrum of
the world of inspecting things. A spectrum has no gaps between its colours, each one
leads seamlessly on to the next. Now think what it would look like viewed in black and
white rather than colour they are now all the same colour (grey) differentiated from
each other only by the depth of their shade of grey.
What if the shades of grey represented technical difficulty? The light grey shades
would represent inspection job roles that are easier to learn, with the dark ones
being progressively more difficult. Difficulty might also be associated with not only the
technical depth of the subject or role but also the time it would take to learn to do it
well. At no point in this continuum from white (easy) to black (difficult) could we draw
a definitive line dividing light from dark, all we can say is that the spectrum consists
of varying degrees of lightness and darkness and that every shade forms part of the
complete picture. So heres our conclusion:
Generic job titles such as inspector and inspection engineer cannot, realistically,
be accurately defined they are simply parts of the continuous spectrum of job
roles in the inspection industry
Looking back in time to the start of it all, it becomes clear that job titles and
delineations are much more artificial than they appear. The earliest engineers
conceived the ideas, designed their innovative steam engines, bridges and ships,
raised the funds and inspected many of the parts themselves. This was born of
necessity because there werent any ready-trained inspectors waiting to understand
others ideas and do the job for them. Once underway, however, the industry
matured quite quickly and separate job roles soon started to crystallise out, driven by
peoples preference to concentrate on things that they naturally did best.
However,
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One way to view the difference in roles is to consider how difficult each one is and
how long it would take to learn to do it fully (and properly)
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A rough guide to inspection industry breakdown

There are many hundreds of different industry types, roles, job descriptions and
specialisms in the world of inspection engineering, spread over a multitude of
different industry sectors. There are various systems that attempt to categorise these
into Standard Industry Classifications (SIC) using code numbers or letters but they are
complicated and dont always fit well with each other.
Simplistically, you can think of the inspection industry, and the job roles within
it, as a matrix. To keep this matrix to any sort of manageable size means that it
needs to be generalised providing an overall picture rather than a detailed or
comprehensiveanalysis.
Fig.14 shows the matrix. The more basic industries lie near the bottom, rising to the
increasingly complex and technologically advanced ones towards the top. Although
pure science elements exist at all these levels, they become more prevalent and used
in greater detail in those industries near the top of the matrix. There is no implication
of value or worth to industry in the position of any entry in the vertical scale, it is
just a crude grading based on the overall complexity and resultant difficulty of the
subject. The horizontal axis of the matrix is different this shows the basic allocation
of inspection job roles. These are equally applicable to all the industry sectors in the
vertical scale there may be a few differences but the basic breakdown is much the
same for all. The horizontal axis is based on a chronological (time) scale running left
to right. Unlike the vertical axis, the differences in complexity and difficulty are less
well spread across the horizontal axis. Design appraisal before manufacture sits
alone as a discrete skill-set but the others are fairly well separated out, representing
discrete and identifiable inspection job roles.
The left-hand end, design appraisal, suits those people with a fairly high level of
formal technical qualifications and a thorough approach. They prefer an office-based
role, can assess designs proposed by others against a set of detailed design codes
but they wouldnt feel very comfortable doing factory and site inspections.
Moving to the second column, inspection during manufacture (shop inspection)
suits people who have a wide view of engineering materials and manufacturing
processes (particularly welding). They can use discretion and judgement, like to
find problems and mistakes, and can follow specifications and drawings under the
scrutiny of manufacturers. Their knowledge of the use and degradation of equipment
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INSPECTION-RELATED ROLES
INDUSTRY AREA
Design
appraisal
Inspection
during
manufacture
Inspection
In-service
during
inspection during
installation/
operation
commissioning
Pharmaceutical
production
Medical /optics
engineering
Aerospace
Downstream refinery/
petrochemical plant
Upstream offshore
installations
Power generation
Marine
engineering
Simple pressure systems
(compressed air, cylinders,
catering equipment etc)
Lifting equipment
Paint/coatings
Forging/casting
production
Structural
engineering
Fabrication
manufacture
Domestic services,
heating etc
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Fig.14
57
in processes is normally low as they consider that this is not their job. Most shop
inspectors, therefore, work exclusively as shop inspectors and dont combine the role
with any significant in-service inspections.
In the inspection industry, the best time to start productive professional development
is a few years after your initial training is complete. For best effect, you need to run
it in parallel with a role that gains you practical hands-on experience of inspections,
not sitting in the office. This will force the two to complement each other, multiplying
the effect of them both. Coupled with sound initial training and a bit of hands-on
experience, the way in which you choose and pursue professional development
activities in the early career years seems to be one of the clear factors in determining
who progresses quickly up the technical jobs hierarchy and who does not.
At the right-hand end, in-service inspectors have the desire and skills for site
inspection work but lack the skills to assess the design in the first place. They need
a high level of knowledge of how plant processes work (refineries, chemical plants,
boilers, etc.) as this is central to their role of finding and reporting on damage
mechanisms and their severity.
You can use this rough matrix to plot your current position in the inspection
landscape or to plan where you might like to be in the future. It is not complete or
exhaustive, remember there would need to be 40+ vertical categories to accomplish
that but as a broad career route map it is not a bad place to start.
Training and professional development

Whatever you do, dont confuse these two. It is best to think of training as your initial
academic qualification, craft training, or whatever an activity whose prime purpose
is to get you into your first engineering job. It also provides essential (and useful)
technical background to get you on to the doorstep of your subject but doesnt yet
provide you with any of the full skill-sets that you need to move forward. This training
is a benchmark, slotted into the system to differentiate between those who have it
and those who do not.
Professional development is the next step. This is any training activity that has a
specific job-related objective or purpose. It is often mistakenly seen as comprising
mid-career courses in generalised disciplines such as marketing, finance, QA, project
management, and similar. Such temptingly-named courses are really not what it is
about. While they may look and sound good, they lack cutting edge in differentiating
those people who have real ability in the core skills of the industry from those who
dont. They are too general, too short and woefully lacking in core skills, technical
content and bite.
Productive professional development must be centred on the core skills of the
industry you are in. To have the quality of being able to differentiate between its
participants, it has to be structured to have pass or fail criteria with a pass mark high
enough (and overall pass rate low enough) to buy it credibility and give it some teeth.
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Degrees of (engineering) excellence

You have probably decided that getting a degree is a good idea, whether you want to
work in the inspection business or not. The reason why any high-level qualification is
required always makes a good talking point. Opinions differ about why it is necessary
and what is the point of it all.
The time-honoured explanation they will give you is that it is all about training your
mind. Engagement in the apparently endless carousel of mathematical examples,
laboratory reports, descriptions and discussions will train your grey cells to address
similar, even unrelated, problems in your future career and all will be well.
This is interesting but of course untrue. Your mind is now as trained as it ever will be.
It is at the pinnacle of its absorptive, innovative and recuperative powers loaded,
primed and ready to go. You are sitting at the end of 4500 000 years of human
development, a continuum of innovation, forward thinking, and trial and error that
turned the world from stone age caves and forests to what you see today. Most of the
steps and discoveries were made by people under 25, without any qualifications at all
these are a very recent development.
Thus, setting the above aside as an illusion disproven by history, the need for an
engineering degree today is based on four main criteria. Consider them as of equal
weight, complementary criteria that naturally exist as part of a set, and each of which
has little resonance or effectiveness without the assistance of the others. Look
atFig15.
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Criterion 1. A degree is a benchmark
What does an engineering

degree do for you?
A degree is
a benchmark
A degree
is a time-filter
Gives industry
something to
measure against
See if you like

engineering as
a career
As a benchmark for industry, degrees work reasonably well without being spectacular.
Industries seem to like benchmarks as it gives them something to aim for, or against
which they can measure their success. Oil companies and many large inspection
companies use them as part of their recruitment policy, giving them some clue as to
who to invite to interviews and who not.
One of the strange properties of benchmarks is that they cannot be usefully
produced by the part of the organisation that sees the benefit in using them. The
profit-making parts of any inspection business (consisting of those people and groups
who actually know how the inspection side of things work) are far too busy trying
to extract profit from the market while supporting the rest of the organisation and
its hangers-on, to become involved in recruitment policy, skill-sets or this weeks
current incarnation of the education system. The result is that recruitment policy
and practices are administered by those on the edge of an organisation rather than
at its profit-making core. This fosters the practice of grabbing at plausible-sounding
requirements that can be put in recruitment adverts and slid into the candidate
assessment procedure.
The actual detailed content of degree courses can (and does) remain a bit of a
mystery to many inspection industry recruiters. The contents of most benchmark
A degree is
taking the first step
Sets you off an a
career path to the
winning post
A degree gives
you knowledge
feedstock
Provides a supply
of technical
information
qualifications are set in academia rather than the inspection customer organisations
themselves because, as we know, they are simply too busy. Some comfort is offered
by various third-party accreditations of degree courses and this, accompanied by a
few subjective recollections of the reputation and specialisms of some educational
institutions and courses, is usually good enough. The end result is that an engineering
degree becomes a prerequisite for entering the recruitment and interview process
for large organisations. The bigger the organisation, the more they like it.
Fig.15
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Criterion 2. A degree is a time-filter
Criterion 4. A degree gives you knowledge feedstock
This one works for you. The time and effort required to achieve an engineering
degree gives you a chance to see if you like the subject of engineering. If it proves
not to be for you, its best to find out sooner rather than later, to prevent your career
becoming a necessary daily chore. If you decide it is for you, you will gain:
The biggest advantage of an engineering degree is the knowledge feedstock it

provides you with. It may be surrounded by the usual doubtful skills of management,
sales, communication, and the like, but strip these away and it is an almost perfectly
technical subject. You cannot progress without a critical mass of this technical
information, much of which is packaged in the engineering degree syllabus.
The opportunity to make engineering your career (as an inspector or

somethingelse)
Access to the answers to the vast array of engineering questions that 99% of the
general population cant answer
A guarantee (well, almost) of long-term employability, if you are any good. This may,
or may not, offer good financial reward depending on which area of the subject
you end up in. There are a few stratospheric salaries in engineering, a lot of good
ones, and some where you would make as much as driving a taxi. Your eventual
destination will be decided by the sum total of your ability, willingness to seek
knowledge and the choices you make along the way
The degree process filter acts as a long filter, rather than a particularly severe or fine
one but it works pretty well.
Criterion 3. A degree is a first step in the career race

Career progression is nothing more than a race against the clock. As you progress,
the winning post either gets closer or recedes into the unobtainable distance,
depending on where you have set it.
In any race, the first step is not the winning post. Sadly, you cannot enter any
race without the first step so the sooner you take it the better. Think of this first
step as a mechanistic process, with the objective being its completion rather than
demonstrating a shining example of success. A degree is a sound first step but it is
not the winning post which is where the prizes are awarded.
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Which degree is the best?

This matters less than you think. The number of engineering degrees available in the
UK alone now runs into hundreds, each one comprising different combinations and
permutations of pure or applied subjects and claiming to be shorter, more effective
or more (or less) intensive than the others.
Relax. With a few exceptions, all this creation is largely artificial. It proliferates from
educational establishments needs to increase their numbers of student customers
rather than by the segmented technical needs of the industries they ultimately serve.
At this level, all engineering has a fairly stable core of mathematics, chemistry and
physics equations, concepts and techniques that describe the engineering-related
parts of the natural world. The multiple variations of degree subject combinations are
nothing more than different patterns of the DNA of the subject, not different DNA.
If you do move into the inspection industry, the pattern of technical subjects learned
during a degree will really only become useful to you when you are in about year 4 of
your post-graduate career. Before this, in years 1, 2 and 3, the pattern of knowledge
feedstock picked up during your degree will feature in only about 5% of the
inspection-related activities in which you are involved. The rest will, for the moment,
be forgotten. Sadly, it is impossible to know in advance exactly which 5% of your initial
knowledge upload you will need so you more or less have to do it all.
In about year 4 of a post-graduation career, everything changes. Only about 20%
of graduates will still be with their initial role or employer and the demand will now
almost certainly be for a completely different pattern of knowledge than the 5% you
used when you first started. The new pattern of knowledge required will now start
to present itself to you. The percentage of the core engineering subjects you use
will start to rise and any synthetic combinations of syllabus content of your original
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degree will quickly lose its significance. This will be followed in close pursuit by the
title of your degree, its artificially created specialisms and the name of the hallowed
institution whence it came.
Step 1: Decide your target: C, B or A
Only now are you in the race.
Degrees and how to pass them

Passing a degree is a more or less mechanistic procedure. Assuming you have
been pre-programmed with the necessary basic education and are blessed with
an average-to-good mental processing ability, passing a degree comprises a fixed
equation of 5% flair and natural ability, 5% chance, and 90% predictable, mechanistic
procedure. Engineering degrees are no exception to this in fact, they fit the formula
better than most.
Heres the procedure to follow:
Step 1 Decide your target, C, B or A (from the description of Step 1 given below)
Step 2 Get the syllabus so you know whats coming
Step 3 Weed out the syllabus so you can manage it
Step 4 Establish a learning method
Step 5 Follow your learning method tailored to the C, B or A decision target you
have set
This five-step methodology has always worked well and its effectiveness is actually
increasing owing to the recent proliferation of degree courses and increases
in undergraduate numbers. It is helped along by the increasing contemporary
assumption that most candidates should succeed, surrounded by a sparkling array
of assessment structures, grades and sub-grades. Here is the first step (the most
important one) in a little more detail:
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Your choice of three targets will set the agenda for all the time you spend on your
degree course. They are equally applicable to full- or part-time courses they relate
purely to the target that you set yourself and are, therefore, independent of the
name, content or length of the course. One of the inherent properties of these
targets is that if that you dont consciously choose one (from the three), one will
always choose itself for you, attaching itself to you without your knowledge. It is,
therefore, best to choose one for yourself so you know what it is, and can fit in with it.
Target C. If you choose target C, you have decided to do just enough to pass all the
parts of the syllabus you need to get your degree. Grade is not important to you,
and you are happy to rely on a bit of luck to, hopefully, get better than you deserve.
In submitting reports, dissertations and projects, and sitting exams, you are happy
with recital rather than real understanding; indeed you may not know the difference.
There is no need to feel isolated if you have chosen target C (or it has chosen you)
because about 50% of your fellow undergraduates will do exactly the same.
Target B. Target B undergraduates are target C ones in urbane disguise. While
fundamentally sharing the target C views, they have identified that the business of
passing qualifications must have some error margin floating around. Aiming just to
pass could mean that with a bit of bad luck, unplanned absences, or misreading of
exam questions, it might just be possible to fall victim to this error margin and fail.
Opinions differ on how big this error margin actually is but, intuitively, it feels like
somewhere between 5 and 15%.
Target B undergraduates aim to try that little bit harder, to ensure they place
themselves firmly in the pass zone, clearly above the error band. They intend to do
this mainly in the continuous assessment or project work elements of the degree
course, hoping that the examined parts (which are just that bit harder) will look
after themselves. To help their chances in the continuous assessment modules,
target B undergraduates tacitly accept that they will need to bring a little structure
and organisation to their work. This will be largely reactive, though they will do it
when chased or when they think they have to. On balance, they are still (knowingly
or unknowingly) being managed by the degree syllabus that is thrust upon them,
occasionally being surprised when it goes too fast, too slow or when it suddenly
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expands to a depth that catches them out. When it does, they will discuss this
apparent unfairness with some of the 35% of undergraduates who have chosen the
same target B path.
Summary: your choice of target
Target A. Target A is not necessarily about getting the top marks in the class, grade
A+ or A++ with gold and platinum star. These awards, say the 15% target A group, are
for the birds nothing but a crude and ephemeral illusion of early-career grandeur
rather than success in itself.
The real secret of target A lies in the predictability it brings to the whole affair. Target
A undergraduates analyse the content, structure and timing of the course in advance.
This way, as they progress through the months and years of the course, they always
know what is coming next so that they can put the past and forthcoming parts of the
syllabus in the context of the final examinations and so they come as no surprise.
Three things play a big part in this, as described below:
Full familiarity with the basic ball skills of the course subjects. To hit target A, it
requires complete mastery of basic maths and its differentiation and integration
methods until they become second nature. Recognising mathematical formats and
equation types is a requirement of many degree subjects and this will pay back in
benefits many times. Once you have achieved this mastery, you will find yourself
attracted to classroom and homework examples that require these skills, rather
than imaginatively avoiding them which is what the target B and C groupsdo
Asking why? and what else can I find out? The target A philosophy does not end
with doing the ten questions or examples given on any particular subject. Think of
this as being about two-thirds of the journey when youve done them, make an
active attempt to find some different examples (harder, not easier ones) and do
them as well. For qualitative or descriptive information and concepts, ask Why? two
or three times, and go off and search until you find the answer. You are constantly
making things hard for yourself but that is the environment of target A
Planning and time management is the bedrock of target A territory. You need to get
the course syllabus in advance, see how long each part takes, make plans for doing
it, learning it, revising it, sorting out your problems with it, and then anticipating the
way that its content will be inserted into the examinations. None of this is random:
it is all planned in advance so that ultimately there are no surprises. You are
managing it rather than it managing you
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Seen from a distance, there is no single more important part of passing an

engineering degree course than the target C, B, or A that you choose. Throughout the
course it will determine:
What you do
How you do it
When you do it
How much effort you put in
Whether you pass or fail and what grade you get
Do you have any experience?

Nature has thoughtfully provided you with the mental processing power. Your
degree will give you the named folders in which to store the next four decades of
accumulated data. All you need now is the universal tool for sifting the wide data
stream that will be heading in your direction, from which you have to separate out the
relevant information from the unnecessary, the illusion and the noise.
This tool is called experience. While it may not be the only tool in the box, it has
an impressive record of success. Almost everything gets easier with experience
seemingly insurmountable problems become straightforward, once you have seen
the solution before. Intractable barriers turn to straw in the sunlit field of hindsight,
and straight thinking gradually replaces the previous patterns of circles and spirals
that you have discovered lead nowhere.
As with all things of value, experience has a scarcity about it. Inspection experience
is no different. To graduates, it is elusive. All employers would like it, quizzing you
to see if you have it, as you wonder exactly where you are supposed to have got it
from. To employers, it is a scarce resource graduates with engineering experience,
particularly relevant experience, are rare enough to foster competition amongst
employers for their services. It would be even better if these graduates came prepacked ready for use, their experience having been thoughtfully provided at the time
and expense of someone else.
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To get round this situation, you need to get hold of this experience quickly. As
experience is basically about you absorbing relevant parts of the data stream to
which you are exposed, the secret is to ensure that you embark on a process of
accelerated data transfer. This wont happen by itself, you need to consciously make
ithappen.
Forget the clock and calendar as a frame of reference because accelerated data
(experience) time is not real time. Real time is far too slow. Graduates who process
the data stream in real time are controlled by the data stream rather than exerting
their will upon it and the following risks lie in wait:
In 4 years, you may not necessarily have accumulated 4 years of experience data
transfer only 4 months of transfer, repeated 12 times. You have achieved an
experience efficiency of 1/12 = 8.3%
You have processed 12 4 month data streams which, although aesthetically and
technically different, actually only trigger the same experience locks. The result is
much the same. Congratulations, 8.3%
Note that the above has little to do with your mental processing power (to solve
problems, write specifications, understand drawings, or etc.) Everyone is a bit
different at that but these differences have little effect compared to the results if the
correct (experience) data stream does not arrive with you in the first place.
To summarise: The key thing is to accelerate the (experience) data stream to which
you are exposed. Once it is there, your brain will process it for you without you
needing to try very hard.
Engineering experience
and how to get it
75%P
Creating problems, getting the

solutions wrong and then successfully
solving them yourself
Creating problems and

then solving them yourself
55%P
35%P
65%
Solving problems
created by others
Being in
charge of it
Doing it yourself
when asked
How to accelerate your input data stream

Choose your poison from the recipe in Fig.16. The list shows the data stream
(experience) efficiency that each of the entries will give you. None has an efficiency of
greater than 100%, so you cant accelerate calendar time chronologically but anything
above about 40% will place you above the average and you will effectively exceed
realtime.
2%P
Conversely, if you rely on activities below 40%, your experience clock slows below
real time and you will fall behind. Unfortunately, the activities offering the greatest
experience return are always the least comfortable and have an unerring ability to
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35%
Being around
things happening
15%
Looking at what was

previously done by others
Fig.16
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hide away until you go looking for them. Comfort resides at the bottom left of the list,
waiting to catch you. Here lie the fence-sitters, inspectors, engineers and their friends,
who like to avoid making decisions, preferring to hide behind their job title rather
than their threadbare technical knowledge.
Lack of interest in practical skills? Dont confuse this with being questioned on
your physical experience of practical skills that will be pretty clear from your
age and activities shown on your CV. The issue is your interest in the practical
aspects. You can fall foul of this one by talking too much about computer skills and
spreadsheets because familiarity with these is not in short supply
For how long is this list valid?
Browser dependency? Nothing is better than this at chiselling the interview

generation gap into a form that wont help you. In the ageing eyes of your
interviewers, the answers to engineering questions are not found in the depths of
Gurglepedia or any other epic destinations of your browser. They may, of course,
be wrong but they are running your interview
It remains in force, unchanged, for your whole career, if you care to go and read it.
By about 10 years after graduation, however, you will have chosen your place on it
and you are caught. You will find it just about impossible to move up it no matter how
hard you try.
Final cut inspection job interviews

Job interviews are, by their nature, awkward affairs. As a bit of office theatre, they
are difficult to beat, with multiple facets depending on whether you are looking at it
from the viewpoint of employer or applicant. Running the whole show is, of course,
the generation gap between interviewer and interviewee. It provides both with
significant challenges and, generally, makes for an interesting cocktail of optimism,
misunderstanding and general unease.
On balance, engineering interviews are more difficult for the interviewer than the
interviewee. Rather than being active searches for the strong points of applicants,
it more often turns into a procession of questions and verbal exercises to see who
has the fewest weak points amongst those being interviewed. This is actually good
news from the applicants point of view as these perceived weak points are smaller in
number than strong points ever can be, and are, within a fairly small tolerance band,
almost perfectly predictable. Here they are:
Dependence and indecisiveness? Enlightened interviewers are permanently

twitchy about applicants who seem to have plenty of technical knowledge, express
an interest in inspection but would rather someone else make all the decisions for
them. Reasons for this range from not wishing to be seen to get something wrong,
to saving face, to an overall attitude of indecision and procrastination upon which
some people base their life. None of these provides very good value for money
from an employers point of view. If, perish the thought, your interviewer also
suffers from just a bit of this, he or she will strangely not welcome seeing it in you.
Thats just how it works
So theres the formula: if you can formulate an interview technique to get round these
perceived weak points first, you can then get on with the easier business of letting
your strong points shine through.
Limited technical knowledge? The headline purpose of an inspection-related job

interview is generally to find out whether an applicants technical knowledge base
reflects an aptitude for, and an interest in, the subject of engineering inspection
or whether all they can do is recite, brightly coloured parrot-fashion, what they
remember from their assembled college courses. About 70% of applicants fit into
the latter category and are easy to spot
70
www.edifgroup.com
71
About Edif ERA

For critical industries and environments
world-wide, Edif ERA provide engineering
and consultancy services comprising: power
engineering, asset integrity, capability assurance
and investment support. Edif ERA reduce risk,
optimise performance and enhance capability,
giving our customers in the defence and
security, energy, industry, and transport sectors
confidence to build successful operations.
When its critical, count on us.
Edif is a global company

Edif Group spans an international network of 20 offices in 40 countries. Our 650 employees and
2,500 associates are some of the worlds leading sector and technical experts in their field.
Edif Group is formed of two companies, Edif ERA and Edif NDE comprising more than 100 years of brand
history. Our long term customer relationships are built on an ongoing commitment to broaden services,
deepen sector experience and an ability to respond quickly to needs on a local and global scale.
Tel: +44 (0)1372 367345Fax: +44 (0)1372 367321

Email: training@edifera.comedifgroup.com/training

Edif Plant Inspector Career and Training Guide

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The plant inspection and

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Edif ERA, a global engineering, consultancy and training

1. The inspection and integritybusiness 

2. Inspection markets: worldwide

3. Inspection industry structure

4. Career groups and progression

5. Inspector terms and conditions thefacts

7. Office-vs-site inspection roles

8. Skills and qualifications

9. Inspection skills selfassessment

10. Your training options

11. Engineering inspection careers: some advice

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

1. The inspection and

The inspection and integrity business

Plant inspection involves the basic activities of:

3 Inspecting plant for mechanical condition

3 Basic code calculations

Using inspection results to decide Fitness-For-Purpose (FFP) using more complex

The inspection and integrity business is made necessary by the combined

Fig.1 The plant inspection and integrity business

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Inspection markets: worldwide

2. Inspection markets: worldwide

USA and Canada

Central Asia and Russia

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Inspection industry structure

3. Inspection industry structure

A steadily developing area with young and academically qualified workforce in

Structure of the business

Insurance company inspections

Petroleum/petrochemical industry inspections

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

The inspection industry

Inspection industry structure

Onshore inspection engineers work in refineries, petrochemical plants, and other

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Career groups and progression

4. Career groups and progression

The NDT technician route

Fig.3 The main career routes into inspection

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Career groups and progression

The plant operator route

The graduate/project engineer route

Lack of hands-on engineering experience

Crossover from other specialisms

Plant inspection and integrity industry career and training guide

Career groups and progression

Career progression in the inspection industry

Home-based. Multiple local

Plant operation and general

Adapting to the different

ASME Level 1 Plant

A secure staff position

Expanding your technical

ASME Level 1 Plant

I Eng or equivalent level.

Building high level reporting

ASME Level 2 qualification.

Offshore 3/2 rotation

Rope access, NDE/weld

1. The inspection and integritybusiness

2. Inspection markets: worldwide

3. Inspection industry structure

4. Career groups and progression

5. Inspector terms and conditions thefacts

7. Office-vs-site inspection roles

8. Skills and qualifications

9. Inspection skills selfassessment

10. Your training options

11. Engineering inspection careers: some advice

3 Inspecting plant for mechanical condition