Your new employer will have a written practice that will define their system of qualifying NDT personnel.

Al

Jordan,

Go to the ASNT website: asnt.org and there you can find what hours you need, both classroom and practical, as well as how they accumulate. This sounds like a great opportunity and I wish you good luck in you endevours.

Regards,

Eric

This is taken from our Written Practice that I wrote and taken from SNT-TC-1A, but that companies written practice may be different and maybe more stringent.  Like the others said it based on how they wrote their WP.

Method        Level FormalTraining       Experience Hours in Method  Total Experience Hours in NDT
Liquid Penetrant  I           4                                     70                                                  130
Liquid Penetrant  II          8                                    140                                                  270
Magnetic Particle  I     12                                     70                                                  130
Magnetic Particle  II      8                                     210                                                  400
Ultrasonic          I     40                                     210                                                  400
Ultrasonic          II     40                                     630                                                  1200

Notes:
1.  If only one method of NDE is being worked in then the last column is the number of hours required for experience for certification.
2.  If the technician is certifying directly to a level II without time as a level I then the combined training and experience hours of Level I and Level II must be attained prior to certification.

Basically you are required to get the required formal training hours, which is typically from a level III.  This level III is usually independent or at a college or business that trains individuals like yourself.  These hours are in a classroom environment with a little hands on.

Each method will have a 3 part exam.  General knowledge exam, exam over a procedure, and a practical hands on exam with actual NDE equipment and a part with an indication that may be acceptable or rejectable.

Most individuals get their Level I and II hours all at once then go get their OJT or experience hours and then take their level II exams or your company might want you to take a level I before your level II exam to make sure you have a clue about what you are doing.

You can train all at once.  How you accumulate your hours is based on WP and employer and how honest everyone is.  I have met Level III's that don't care how many hours you have if you can pass an exam and I have met others that are very stringent on how your hours accumulated and every day they need to be recorded and signed off by a level III.  Some Level III's and WP's will allow signing off on computer based training, reading books, reading anything NDE related, but most importantly you need to scrub parts and get the OJT by doing the work.  You will not learn enough until you get the required hours and even then you will probably not get the right amount of experience to be a very knowledgeable technician.  For example like myself as a level II in PT, UT, MT and most of my experience in MT dry visible with a yoke and I can't tell you how to do wet fluorescent on a bench or use a portable unit.  I can tell you what is supposed to be done but that doesn't mean I would do it right and I have been a level II in MT for 4 years.

I say go for it!!!!! There are very few companies that will take someone with no experience in the listed methods to spend a year of you doing nothing but train.

Hope this is helpful and I didn't miss anything, as I am sure these guys will get me on the right track :-)