Welding, Corrosion and Inspection
Welding Technology and Procedure
AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)
Preparing for the Certified Welding Inspector examination, across the fundamentals, the practical and the code paper.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- US$995
Overview
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.
Who should attend
Welding and QC inspectors preparing to sit the examination, QA engineers and supervisors who manage inspection, and experienced welders moving into an inspection role.
What you will be able to do
- 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.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
The inspector's role
- Duties, authority, and the limits of both
- Ethics, independence, and pressure from the schedule
- The documents an inspector works from, and their order of precedence
Processes and consumables
- Manual metal arc, MIG, flux cored, TIG and submerged arc, and how each fails
- Electrode and filler classification
- Shielding, storage, and the problems poor handling causes
- Joint design, preparation and fit up
Day 2
Metallurgy and heat
- The heat affected zone, and why it is where cracks live
- Preheat, interpass and post weld heat treatment
- Hydrogen cracking, and the conditions that produce it
- Distortion and residual stress
Day 3
Discontinuities and acceptance
- Porosity, slag, lack of fusion, undercut and cracking
- Discontinuity against defect, and who decides which it is
- Reading an acceptance criterion exactly as written
- Measuring with gauges rather than by eye
Day 4
Examination practice
- Fundamentals: question types and the traps inside them
- Practical: working the supplied book and the replica specimens
- Code: locating a clause fast, and not over reading it
- Timing, and what to do when a question is costing too long
Day 5
Reporting
- A report that states observation, criterion and conclusion separately
- Photographs, references and traceability
- Defending a rejection, and withdrawing one properly
What you leave with
- 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.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Kampala, Uganda | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Nicosia, Cyprus | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Live online | Live online | US$995 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Live online | Live online | US$995 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was 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.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.