"A different kind of CAT"
In an interesting extension of its Coating Inspector Training and Certification Scheme the UK Institute of Corrosion has recently launched the Industrial Coating Applicator Training Scheme (ICATS). Coating inspector training schemes are not new – the NACE CIT&C scheme has been running more than 25 years and ICorr's own inspector training scheme has been in operation for more than 12 years. However, coating applicator training schemes are not so common, yet arguably it is even more important to train the person who is applying the paint if you hope that an inspector will come along later and find it has been applied satisfactorily.
There are good reasons why coating applicator training has been less popular for the technical societies to organise. Equipment is required, something realistic has to be available to coat and suitable steel components are difficult to get to a training establishment. Typical paint or coating materials themselves are expensive, all of which adds to the cost, but the price of the course is critically low because coating operatives are not the highest paid of staff on the construction site.
As a result of these constraints the format for coating applicator training must differ from conventional inspector training courses where virtually the only overheads are the rental of the room in which the course is delivered and the fee of the trainer. Necessarily, the Coating applicator scheme must be fundamentally a company-sponsored initiative. The candidate registration fee should be as low as possible to make training and certification an attractive proposition to the operatives. At the same time it should be impressed upon candidates that he or she has a personal investment in the scheme. If the candidate registration and certification fees are to be kept low, however, the money to support development and delivery of the applicator-training course has to come from somewhere else.
Who has most to gain from well-applied coatings by qualified individuals?Clearly, the supplier company should benefit from fewer failures, lower claims and more satisfied customers. However, coating application contracts are notoriously keenly priced. As a result contracting companies have been loathed to pay from their own profits to train operatives who they fear may move to a competitor as soon as their certificate has been obtained.
Perhaps, the key realisation on the ICATS scheme, however, was that the primary benefit should accrue to the client organisations who want coatings to protect their assets for as long as possible – perhaps as long as 25 years or more. Recognition of this issue has combined with the foresight of individuals within organisations such as the Highways Agency, Network Rail,Corus (the major UK structural steel manufacturer), the British Coatings Federation, the British Constructional Steelwork Association, Local Authorities and Consultant Engineers who have banded together, initially to sponsor development and delivery of ICATS and subsequently to stipulate operative certification as a mandatory pre-qualification requirement for work to be undertaken on their installations.
The beauty of ICATS is that everyone knew that operative (and supervisor)training was necessary but no-one had worked out how it should be paid for. This smart scheme has overcome the obstacles. It allows operatives to obtain and take pride in having an internationally-recognised qualification that is, in effect,paid for primarily by the end client who, after all, derives the primary benefit. By mandating the certification requirement while sharing the overhead of an independently- managed training course, client organisations in effect make a united statement that they expect the highest quality work to be delivered on their contracts. And yet the marginal cost of attaining the certification is negligible relative to the added value of lower maintenance expenditure, greater availability and improved reliability.
(Further information on the ICATS scheme can be found at: www.icorr.org)
William M. Cox
