Running an SNT-TC-1A Programme as a US Employer — The Operational Guide
SNT-TC-1A puts the burden on the employer, not the candidate. Here is what that obligation looks like in practice, and the four findings auditors write most often.
The thing most employers misunderstand
SNT-TC-1A is a recommended practice, not a standard, and it does not certify anybody. It tells an employer how to build its own certification programme. That means the credential your technicians hold is issued by you, valid within your organisation, and only as defensible as the programme behind it. Clients audit that programme — not ASNT — when they audit your personnel.
What you actually have to build
A Written Practice. Your document, stating your training hours, experience hours and examination requirements per method and level; your vision requirements and their recurrence; your rules for interrupted service and recertification; and the named Level III under whose technical authority it operates. Where you differ from the recommended tables — which is permitted — state the basis. A Written Practice that is the published template with your logo on it tells an auditor nobody engaged with it.
A Level III with real authority. Not a name on a signature block. The person who approves procedures, prepares and grades examinations, and can describe the programme when asked. Many companies engage this as an outsourced service rather than carrying a full-time post — legitimate, provided the engagement is real and documented.
Examinations that exist. General, specific and practical per method and level, administered and graded under the Level III's authority, with the papers retained. "We assessed competence on the job" is not an examination.
Records that survive scrutiny. Per technician, per method: training hours with dates, experience hours attested, examination results, vision test currency, and the certification instrument itself with its expiry. Retrievable on the day a client asks, not reconstructable over a week.
The four findings auditors write most often
Expired vision records. The fastest-expiring item in the file, and every examination performed after expiry is unsupported. Experience hours undocumented — claimed in a summary with nothing behind them. A Written Practice that does not match reality, typically hour requirements nobody applies. Certifications continuing past a break in service where the practice's own interrupted-service clause should have triggered requalification.
None of these is about technical competence. All four are about administration, which is why companies with excellent technicians still fail audits.
SNT-TC-1A, CP-189 or ISO 9712?
Choose by what your contracts name. CP-189 is a standard rather than a recommended practice — fixed requirements, less latitude, specified by clients wanting consistency across suppliers. ISO 9712 is central certification: the certificate belongs to the technician and travels. SNT-TC-1A remains the default across most US work. SNT-TC-1A vs CP-189 · ISO 9712 vs SNT-TC-1A · the certification pathway.
Building or repairing a programme: talk to an ASNT Level III. Tracking it once built: certification-tracking software exists because spreadsheets are where the four findings above come from.
For the people managing everyone else’s certifications
Tracking one certification is easy; tracking two hundred across five methods, with vision exams, on-the-job hours and client-specific approvals, is where inspection companies lose client audits. Certification tracking and the wider inspection management software guide cover how currency is enforced at dispatch so a lapsed technician simply cannot be assigned to a job. There is also a free qualification and calibration register you can start using today.
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