AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)

The examination is three papers, and candidates usually fail the one they did not prepare for. This week is built around that. Fundamentals covers processes, metallurgy and discontinuities. The practical is worked under the book you will be given on the day. The code paper is less a test of memory than of finding the governing clause quickly and reading it as written. Alongside the preparation runs the part that matters afterwards, which is what an inspector is for: inspection is a judgement made against an acceptance criterion and then defended, and a candidate who passes without learning to write the report has passed an examination rather than become an inspector. The examination itself is sat with the certifying body.

It runs 4 times over the published calendar, in 2 cities and live online. Every date is the same programme with the same content and the same certificate.

• Identify welding processes, consumables and joint configurations on sight.
• Recognise discontinuities, and tell a discontinuity from a defect.
• Work a code book under time pressure and find the governing clause.
• Apply a visual inspection method consistently and record it.
• Write an inspection report that holds up when it is challenged.

Welding and QC inspectors preparing to sit the examination, QA engineers and supervisors who manage inspection, and experienced welders moving into an inspection role.

Short input, then work. Across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each, the balance sits deliberately with the second: a programme where the trainer talks for six hours produces notes rather than capability.

• Your own material

  Exercises run on situations delegates bring, not on a case study written for a different organisation in a different decade.

• A capped cohort

  Small enough that everybody is asked something. Executive programmes are capped tighter still.

• Practice under scrutiny

  The difficult conversation, the challenged assumption, the decision defended out loud. Judgement is not built by watching.

• Something to take back

  Each day ends with a thing you can use on Monday rather than a slide deck you will not reopen.

• Worked practice across all three papers under timed conditions.
• A personal gap list, so revision afterwards is aimed rather than general.
• A visual inspection routine and report format you can use immediately.

A GATI certificate recording what you attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended.

Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record, which is what makes it worth holding. It records participation. This site will not imply one it does not have.