Hi David

Good luck and good learning with the course, if you decide to go ahead. I noticed nobody has responded to your post for a couple of days so I'll give you my opinion based on the little biography you have given plus GE's own brief course description:

"Course covers Glossary of terms, Technical overview of Phased Array principles and imaging concepts.  Brief details of equipment, benefits, etc."

You are interested in NDT - great start especially as you have associated experience in weld inspection and QA/QC. But have you spoken with any of the UT techs you should have encountered? I am certain the honest ones would tell you that even after a standard minimum initial formal training period for Level II shear wave testing of 3 weeks on a basic pulse-echo A-scan UT set, at the beginning of their careers if asked to assess a production butt weld they needed assistance and guidance from an experienced hand. The only stupid question is the unasked question!

So the answer is a resounding yes - anybody will need further on-the-job training to become adept at PA operation. I'm a manual UT hand who moved into AUT and gained some formal training/experience and qualification of working on PAUT through PipeWizard. I am now mainly office based but I am thinking of going through the necessary 2 weeks of formal PA training leading to the EN473 PAUT qualification. Its treated as a separate qualification, as is TOFD, with its own full training, experience and examination requirements which sit on top of the prerequesite for Level 2 manual UT before you can sit any exam. And so that I would not be put in any ethical dilemma I would want to work alongside an experienced PA tech for a while before considering myself fully capable of independence.

Now this is not meant to deter you at all, rather to encourage you to get the right amount of training before production activity so that you can at least talk sensibly with any future mentor - I am certain many experienced technicians have shaken their heads in disbelief at the lack of knowledge of those newly-qualified and hired who are pushed out into the shop or field by management with a labor shortage problem.

To reiterate - good luck, David