NDT eLearning and Training Records for US Inspection Companies

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Featured in eLearning: Practical NDT (3D simulator)

Training under an employer-based system

In the United States, most NDT personnel are certified by their employer. Under ASNT SNT-TC-1A, your company writes a written practice that sets out how people are trained, how much experience they need, how they're examined and who signs off their certification. ANSI/ASNT CP-189 works on the same employer-based principle but as a standard with firmer requirements, and some clients and codes call for it specifically. ASME Section V points to SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 as the basis for personnel qualification on code work, so shops building to ASME Section VIII live with these documents every day.

That system puts a lot of weight on your own records. When an auditor from a client, an Authorized Inspection Agency or an aerospace prime comes in, they don't ask a central body for your technicians' training history. They ask you. They want to see that the organised training your written practice promises actually happened, who delivered it, what it covered and how the technician did in the exams.

For many US inspection companies, that evidence is a mix of sign-in sheets, old PowerPoints and a Level III's memory. It works until the Level III leaves, or until a busy turnaround season pushes training to the back of the queue.

The eLearning app in Atlantis NDT ERP gives you a single place to run that training and keep its record, next to the technician's certifications and job history. Atlantis's own courses follow ASNT SNT-TC-1A, which is the same basis most US written practices use.

What the eLearning app gives a US NDT company

The portal is a learning management system inside the ERP, configured for NDT work. Built in:

• Level I, II and III course sections, so trainees, Level II technicians and Level III candidates each see the right material.
• Video lessons from OneDrive or SharePoint, played inside the portal with download protection. Your videos stay in your Microsoft 365 tenant.
• Quizzes, with questions importable from Word files, which suits Level IIIs who already keep question banks in Word.
• Certificates of completion issued when a learner completes a course.
• Learner accounts created by admins, with course access granted and revoked by admins.
• A learner dashboard showing courses, progress and what's outstanding.
• Auto-join for invited members, so an invited technician is enrolled when they accept.
• Online course sales for outside learners, if you train beyond your own staff.
• A Practical NDT section that opens Atlantis's 3D practice platform.

Anything beyond that list, for example a specific way of mapping your written practice's training requirements, is configured during implementation as part of the scope agreed with you. We'd rather tell you that plainly than promise a feature that isn't there.

Practical NDT for Gulf Coast crews and new hires

Hands-on practice is the hardest part of training to schedule. Instruments, probes, reference blocks and flawed specimens are in the field earning money, and your Level III is on a unit in Baytown or Baton Rouge, not in the training room.

Practical NDT is Atlantis's immersive 3D, game-like practice platform. Learners run scenarios for UT, PAUT, RT, MT, PT, VT, ET and TOFD on virtual welds, pipes, pressure vessels and castings. They set up, scan, find indications and make calls, without tying up a real instrument or a trainer.

Every learner enrolled in the eLearning portal gets a Practical NDT section. Access is granted automatically on enrolment, or an admin can grant it manually, say for a field supervisor who wants to try a PAUT scenario before signing up for a course.

For US companies, a few uses stand out:

• New hires before a turnaround. A trainee who has run dozens of virtual MT and PT scenarios arrives on site with a better eye, even though real hands-on experience still counts only when logged on real work under your written practice.
• Cross-training into PAUT or TOFD. Experienced UT technicians can explore phased array and TOFD setups before their formal training on real equipment.
• Refreshers. A technician returning to ET after a year on UT can warm up before a job.

Practical NDT does not replace the practical examination your written practice requires on real specimens. It adds practice time you couldn't otherwise schedule.

Written practice evidence your auditors can follow

SNT-TC-1A leaves the detail to your written practice, and that's exactly why audits focus on whether you follow it. A typical question from a client auditor runs something like: show me this technician's organised training for UT Level II, who taught it, and the exam results. The eLearning portal helps you answer that without a scramble.

What the portal records

Who was enrolled in which course, their progress, their quiz results and their certificate of completion. Because accounts are created by admins, there's no confusion about who a learner is. Because access is granted and revoked by admins, you can show who had access to what.

What stays with your Level III

Your Level III still owns the written practice, approves course content, sets exam content and signs certifications. The portal supports them; it doesn't make their decisions. Practical exams on real specimens stay a Level III job.

Linking to technician certifications

The Certificates app records each technician's scheme, whether SNT-TC-1A or CP-189, plus level, method, OJT hours, training hours, exam scores and vision tests. How course completions relate to those training hours is agreed during implementation. Some Level IIIs want to confirm hours by hand; others want completions recorded directly. Both approaches fit.

The point is that the evidence chain, from course to exam to certification, lives in one system instead of three filing cabinets.

Radiography crews, NRC rules and Agreement States

Industrial radiography in the US carries its own training burden. Under NRC rules in 10 CFR Part 34, and the equivalent rules in Agreement States such as Texas and Louisiana, radiographers and radiographer's assistants need specific radiation safety training, instruction in the licensee's operating and emergency procedures and periodic refreshers, plus audits of their work. Your radiation safety officer is responsible for making sure that happens, and inspectors from the regulator will ask to see it.

The eLearning portal doesn't replace your licence conditions or your RSO's programme. It gives you a practical way to deliver the parts that suit online learning and to keep a clean record of completion. Common courses US radiography companies put in the portal include:

• Company operating and emergency procedures walkthroughs.
• Radiation safety awareness for non-radiography staff who work around exposure areas.
• Annual refresher content assigned by the RSO, with completion tracked per person.
• Survey meter and pocket dosimeter use, as video lessons your RSO records.

Alongside it, the Certificates app's employee NDT profile records radiation safety training, radiation badge number and medical fitness expiry. Practical NDT's RT scenarios let trainees practise technique choice, IQI placement and film or image interpretation in a virtual space where nobody receives a dose.

What content counts toward your regulatory training is your RSO's call, and should follow your licence. The portal simply makes that content easier to deliver and prove.

Refinery, pipeline and plant work

A large share of US NDT work is for refineries, petrochemical plants and pipelines, concentrated along the Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi through Houston and Beaumont to Lake Charles and Baton Rouge. Owner-operators run their inspection programmes to API 510, 570 and 653, with API-certified inspectors directing the work and NDT technicians performing it. Those owners often add their own requirements: site orientations, company-specific procedures and technician approvals before anyone touches their equipment.

That creates a steady stream of client-specific training that doesn't fit your general written practice courses. The eLearning portal is a good home for it. Typical examples:

• Procedure familiarisation. Short courses on the client's UT thickness, PAUT or radiography procedures, with a quiz your Level III writes, assigned to every technician on that contract.
• Reporting requirements. What a particular owner expects in a report, and how that maps to your reporting templates.
• Pipeline work. Pipeline operators run operator qualification programmes under 49 CFR Parts 192 and 195, administered by PHMSA. The OQ programme belongs to the operator, but your company can prepare technicians on the knowledge side of the work they'll be doing.

OSHA site safety training is usually delivered by the site or a third party, but your own safety briefings, such as confined space awareness for tank work or hot work rules, can live in the portal too.

The benefit is speed at mobilisation. When a new contract starts, invite the crew to the client's course, and the auto-join means they're enrolled as soon as they accept.

Aerospace shops working to NAS 410

Aerospace NDT in the US follows NAS 410, which, like SNT-TC-1A, is employer-based but far more prescriptive. It requires a written practice, formal training, documented experience and examinations, with Level 3 oversight, and primes audit it closely. Many aerospace suppliers also hold Nadcap accreditation, which adds another layer of scrutiny on personnel records.

Atlantis's training is based on SNT-TC-1A, and the eLearning app makes no claim of NAS 410 conformity on its own. What it does give an aerospace NDT shop is a structured place to run the organised training that its NAS 410 written practice defines, with completion records per person, quizzes and admin-controlled access.

Aerospace methods map well onto Practical NDT scenarios. Eddy current on components, penetrant inspection on castings and UT on bonded or machined parts can all be practised in 3D before a technician moves onto real hardware. For a small shop without spare parts to train on, that's valuable.

If your shop works under both NAS 410 and SNT-TC-1A, for example an aerospace supplier that also does industrial work, the portal's level-based sections can hold separate course tracks for each written practice. That structure is set up during implementation.

How eLearning fits the rest of Atlantis NDT ERP

US inspection companies usually buy the eLearning app to solve a training problem, then find the real benefit is having training in the same system as everything else.

• Certificates. Technician certifications, vision tests and exam sheets. Certificates approaching expiry are flagged 90 days ahead with warning tasks, which is your cue to assign a refresher.
• Team Assignments. The availability calendar includes a training status, so a technician booked on a course day isn't dispatched to a unit in Pasadena that morning.
• Timesheets. They warn when a technician's certificate isn't valid, which catches problems that training alone can't.
• Surveys. Useful for competency questionnaires after a course or feedback from learners.
• Employees. One record per technician, with NDT profile, highest level and methods.

You can adopt eLearning alone or as part of the full Atlantis NDT ERP. Many companies start with training and certificates together, because that's where audit pain is sharpest.

Implementation for US companies

Atlantis is based in Houston, and implementation is run with your team rather than handed over as a login and a manual. A typical project:

1. Review your written practice, SNT-TC-1A or CP-189 based, and current training materials.
2. Agree course structure by level and method, plus client-specific and radiation safety courses.
3. Connect your OneDrive or SharePoint videos and import Word question banks.
4. Set up admin roles, learner accounts and Practical NDT access rules.
5. Configure the links to Certificates, Employees and availability.
6. Pilot with one crew, adjust and hand over.

Cost is quote on request; the product is positioned as affordable, accessible and fully customizable. Request a quote for your US team.

Frequently asked questions

Does the portal satisfy SNT-TC-1A training requirements?

It supports them. SNT-TC-1A leaves training content and hours to your written practice; the portal delivers and records the organised training you define. Your Level III still approves content and certifies personnel.

Can we run CP-189 and SNT-TC-1A tracks side by side?

Yes, as separate courses or course groups within the level sections. The Certificates app records both schemes against each technician.

Will it cover our NRC or Agreement State radiation training?

It can deliver and record radiation safety content your RSO chooses. Whether that content meets your licence conditions is decided by your RSO and regulator, not the software.

Can crews do courses from site?

Yes. Lessons stream from OneDrive or SharePoint, so a technician with a working connection can study from a hotel or site office.

Does Practical NDT count as hands-on experience?

No. Experience hours under SNT-TC-1A come from real work. Practical NDT adds practice before and between real jobs.

Can we sell courses to outside candidates?

Yes, the portal supports online course sales. Be clear that completion is not certification.

See it before your next turnaround

If your next audit or shutdown is on the calendar, now is the time to get training records in order. See the 3D scenarios on the Practical NDT page, then book an eLearning demo and we'll show you the learner and admin views with course examples built around US written practices.

eLearning by region

• eLearning global overview
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• eLearning in UK & Europe
• eLearning in Middle East
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Works with

• Surveys: Exams, competency checks and client feedback forms.

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