BINDT proposes ‘Level 3 Pool’

12/06/2013

The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) is proposing to establish and develop an international and diverse pool of authoritative people who will support BINDT’s work on a voluntary basis, on a fee-paying basis, or a combination of voluntary and fee-paying depending on the respective activity.

The proposal stems from meetings of the BINDT Finance Committee/Establishment Review Panel, which noted that: “auditing [is] recognised as a key element of the [Certification] Department’s work, [so] it was agreed that a pool of (preferably Level 3) external auditors will be formed, enabling audits to be rotated and ‘kept fresh’”, and of the Industry Committee, which set an objective: “To create and maintain a matrix of ‘authoritative contacts’ amongst the Associate Membership, who can be called upon to provide responses to queries, contributions to forums and other technical material for various media channels.”

The anticipated benefits of this proposal are that the effectiveness and efficiency of BINDT’s provision of services will improve and further growth in engagement with stakeholders can be accommodated. For stakeholders, the ultimate benefits will be greater safety, reliability and growth.

More specifically, the initial objectives of this pool are:

To provide auditing services in support of BINDT’s certification proposition (including the PCN Scheme);
To check and, where appropriate, to authorise PCN certificate renewal applications;
To form standing and ad hoc working groups in support of the work of other BINDT committees, thereby promoting the systematic inclusion of relevant stakeholders when BINDT puts out calls for people to contribute to the work of committees and working groups;
To create and maintain a matrix of ‘authoritative contacts’, who can be called upon to provide responses to queries, contributions to forums and generate other technical material for various media channels, across all relevant methods and techniques and across many diverse applications;
To have first refusal on ‘Level 3’ consultancy sales opportunities that occasionally come into BINDT and which will be referred to the pool.

Note: a fee will be paid and, where appropriate, reasonable expenses will be reimbursed for auditing and renewal authorisation work, and reasonable expenses may be reimbursed for committee/working group participation in exceptional circumstances.

It is envisaged that the objectives of the pool will develop over time.

In principle, there is no limit to the size of the pool. However, in practice, there can only be a relatively small number of people trained and authorised to undertake certain activities, such as auditing and renewal authorisation. Therefore, it is anticipated that BINDT will select individuals expressing an interest in these activities based on criteria including:

Impartiality;
Technical proficiency (education, experience, Engineering Council registration, etc);
Scope of Level 3 certification, if held (NDT and CM methods, techniques and industry/product sectors);
Type of Level 3 certification, if held (third-party or employer-based);
Other relevant qualifications, certification and affiliations (for example BINDT membership);
Geographical location (UK and overseas);
Ability to meet BINDT service standards (for example document turnaround time).

Expressions of interest, which should include sufficient information to enable selection against the above criteria, should be lodged by emailing cameron.sinclair@bindt.org before 26 July 2013.

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