Hello Don, I'm sure that you are going to receive a myriad of responses to your questions and also comments on what you perceive to be some of the things required for certification. A real brief overview of welding certification and some of it's ins and outs, I would say that there are literally thousands of certifications for a vast array of welding processes and fabricated products, there are also many different types of certifications, AWS, ASME, Military, Coast Guard, Local and State jurisdictions, although many of these actually use AWS criteria, they still may have their own interpretation of these and their own way of managing and tracking these. Some certifications are only good as long as you are in the employ of a specific employer, others are issued directly to you with specific conditions that you must meet in order to maintain your certification, still more require requalification after a specified period of time such as 6 months or some other period of time. In some cases even changing the diameter of wire used for a certain test will require you to certify with another test. You need to target specific areas that you plan to work in, ie. structural steel, pressure piping, boiler repair or fabrication, whatever area you have an interest in. Once you have selected an area you wish to pursue you need to research the types of certifications that are required for that type of work. Find out specifically what certifications are required and then work at becoming proficient in passing these tests. Even after receiving certification in a given process or processes, it doesn't end there, in most cases when you go out looking for work an employer may have you do an in-house certification to prove to them that you indeed posess the necessary skills. Good Luck, aevald
Welcome to the forum Don, you should be able to find alot of good advice here. As Aevald said, there are literally thousands of certifications you can get but you really have to decide WHY you want to be certified and in what procedure(s). It will be of no use for you to be certified stick welding carbon pipe if you are going to work Tig welding stainless steel sheet metal. See what we mean?
If your current employer has the need for you to be certified(in a specific process...be it GTAW or SMAW or GMAW) than you would want to find out the details of that certification and it's limitations.
Every certification is needed depending on what you will be welding on. Aerospace welding (making parts for aircraft engines) requires specific certifications depending on what welding process used and what alloy and even the wall thickness of the metal. The Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) strictly enforces the codes and certifications surrounding these welding processes.....After all, NO ONE wants a failure in a weld while you are flying around at 40,000 feet. This is just an example, but as Aevald said, you should get some feed back from this question.
Feel free to e-mail me if you have specific questions or post-up more specific questions and I'll be sure to check up on it.
Be well.
Hawk