History of NACE Courses in South Africa

The Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa entered into a licence agreement with NACE in October 2004, and NACE Corrosion Prevention Training was launched into Southern Africa in July 2005. Two programmes were introduced, namely Coatings Inspection (CIP) and Cathodic Protection (CP). All three levels of CIP are available in South Africa, and to date only the first two of the four levels of CP have been presented in S.A.

During the last three years, there has been a great response from the corrosion protection industry in Southern Africa for NACE training. Almost two hundred people have now been trained on fifteen courses under these two schemes, and more than 80% have been awarded NACE certificates. The Institute is proud that South Africa now has thirteen NACE CIP Specialists and two NACE CP Specialists - the ultimate in their fields. Four South African instructors have been approved by NACE. These are Craig Botha, Chris Ringas in the CP programme, and Neil Webb and Bruce Trembling for CIP. CorrISA has also managed to obtain approval from NACE for the South African SAQCC Coatings Inspection Level 2 Certification to be recognised as being equivalent to NACE CIP 1 Certification. Fifteen inspectors have been awarded NACE Certification through this agreement.

A full list of NACE Certificated personnel in Southern Africa is available on the NACE Website at www.nace.org under Education.

In July 2005, a full set of courses in the CIP Programme were held consecutively at the Blastrite premises in Germiston using two NACE Certified instructors from the U.S.A. Malcolm McNeil was the Lead Instructor and he was ably supported by Malcolm Wimer. The CIP 1 course was well subscribed with fifteen students. The standard was high and thirteen passed with flying colours. There was less interest in the other two modules. All seven students passed CIP 2, and five of these students were also awarded CIP Specialist Certification at the Peer Review. Neil Webb and Bruce Trembling applied to NACE to be instructors on CIP 1 and 2 courses.

CP 1 and CP 2 were also held consecutively in July 2005 at Sasol Gas and Science Park. Bob Gummow from Canada was the Lead Instructor and Tim Bieri from the U.S. was the support instructor on both the courses. Both courses were well attended with twelve of the fifteen students passing CP 1, and nine of the fifteen students passing CP 2. Craig Botha and Chris Ringas applied to NACE to be CP 1 and CP 2 Instructors.

CIP 1 and CP 1 courses were also held concurrently in May 2006; CIP 1 was held at Blastrite, and CP 1 was run at Science Park. CIP 1 was supervised by Ray Stone from the U.S. with Neil Webb and Bruce Trembling as Trainee Instructors. The standard was again very high and all twenty students passed with flying colours. The Lead Instructor on CP 1 was Ed Ondak ably supported by Craig Botha and Chris Ringas. Fifteen of the eighteen students passed the course, and the other three students only just missed the pass by a few marks.
CIP 2 and CIP Peer Review were held at Blastrite in August 2006.  Malcolm McNeil was again the Lead on CIP 2 supported by the two local instructors. All ten people passed. All eight attendees were certificated as CIP Specialist at the Peer Review.

Fifteen students attended the CP 2 course at Science Park in August 2006. Ed Ondak was again the Lead; he was supported by the two local instructors. The pass rate was very disappointing and only six people were awarded a CP 1 certificate.

2007 was a busy year for the CIP programme. In total, thirty two people were trained on two CIP 1 courses in Gauteng. Twenty people attended the course at Barloworld Plascon in March in Linbro Park that was lead by Tony Cunningham from the U.K. Twelve students attended the course at Blastrite in June lead by Mike O’Brien the U.S. Both courses were supported by the two SA instructors. In total twenty six students were awarded a CIP 1 certificate.  Twelve of the thirteen students passed the CIP 2 course at Blastrite in August 2007.  This course was also supervised by Mike O’Brien with Neil and Bruce.

Two CP courses were held in Gauteng in 2007.  Both of them were held at Science Park; CP 1 in June and CP 2 in November. Both were supervised by Ed Ondak supported by Chris with Craig instructing only on the CP 1. Thirteen of the fourteen students passed CP 1, and ten of the twelve students passed CP 2.