Hello Shane, and others. I believe Lawrence somewhat touched on the logic of this question. I believe there are also other reasons and justifications for how this works. If company A pays for a particular certification for one of their welders and this individual performs work based on this cert then it is usable for the company whenever this individual is performing welding requiring it. The company paid for it, it owns it, the individual is certified to the particular code but only while employed by this company. The only exceptions that I could see that might be different in this case would be a company that would voluntarily allow the cert to go with the individual, but then would any other companies really accept this for face value without performing testing of this individual on their own? Likely not, and if they were audited concerning the certs that their workers held, would the auditing agency accept this condition?
Unless this cert is similar to the WABO certification process in the state of Washington in the U.S., the WABO is different and is issued to the welder personally and isn't "owned" by the company. So if a company pays for the welder to test to WABO standards the welder can "technically" leave at any time and the company has no say regarding keeping their cert, the company has the name of the individual and their certification number but doesn't have control over their card. Also, if the company has paid for the cert it can only possibly lay some claim to it if this has been negotiated prior to the certification process taking place. As far as company claims to certifications in this case I haven't heard of anyone challenging or being challenged for ownership. In instances concerning the WABO certifications, various companies that this individual might work for will likely require an inhouse test and if the candidate is successful they will use the operators name and certification number from their WABO card for their records. Hope this information adds a bit more to the mix. Best regards, Allan