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LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
At the Beijing Annual Assembly in September 1994, two all-
day meetings were held by WG 13 outlining the progress made by the
Working Group. The meeting, on the first day, was attended by 46 IIW
participants from around the world. This meeting covered key issues
such as the implementation process and the need to address certain
other concerns without holding back the scheme.
8
At the conclusion
of the meeting, on the second day, two resolutions were proposed
to proceed with the IIW international qualification and certification
scheme. These resolutions were ‘that the IIW voluntary scheme for
the education, training, qualification and certification of welding
personnel, as outlined in document XIV-574-93 now be implemented’
and the other resolution was ‘that the Governing Council shall establish
a new Committee “Qualification + Authorisation”, which will report
directly to the Governing Council’. The two resolutions were adopted
by all those present. On the following Saturday the Governing Council
of IIW unanimously approved these resolutions to go ahead with a
global scheme for the ETQ&C of welding personnel.
9
C-XIV, through its WG 13, was then entrusted by
the General Assembly in Stockholm, Sweden in 1995
to prepare a draft guide to cover all aspects involved
in the qualification and certification of welding
personnel. Dr Ralph Long (USA) and Prof. Dr-Ing.Wolf-Dieter Strippelmann
(Germany) participated actively in this work. A new Commission was also
formed (C-VII
Authorisation and Qualification
) to add a further dimension
to this initiative through the chairmanship of Mr ChristianAhrens (Germany)
with the support of Mr David Reynolds (Canada) as Vice-Chair.
10
Ahrens was a sound choice for Chair of C-VII having been head of education and
training at Schweißtechnische Lehr und Versuchsanstalt (SLV) Duisburg (German Welding
Institute Duisburg) for many years. Through his work on C-VII, and a determined approach,
he was destined to take on the post of the Chair of the IIW International
Authorisation Board’s Group A:
Education, Training and Qualification
when it was eventually formed in 1999. Included in the main tasks of
C-VII, therefore, were to determine the general admission and transitional
requirements for IIWANBs. In this respect IIWhad already acknowledged
that EWF had started before IIW in developing its own scheme and it was
for this reason that the EWF document
Rules for the Implementation of
EWF Guidelines for Training and Qualification of Welding Personnel
was adopted and the EWF ANBs were automatically recognised by
IIW in line with that previously agreed between the two parties.
11
Christian Ahrens
Wolf-Dieter Strippelmann
Tim Jessop