Governance
Who decides what AWI certification means, who decides whether an individual gets a certificate, and why those are two different groups of people.
The structure
A certification body has to be able to answer one awkward question: what stops a paying member from buying a certificate? The answer is structural, not a promise.
- The board is responsible for the Institute: its finances, its strategy and its conduct.
- The Education and Certification Committee owns the certification schemes: what each scheme requires, how it is examined, and how it is reviewed. It works with the training system rather than inside it.
- Assessment of an individual application is done against the published scheme rules, on documentary evidence, by AWI administration. Membership status changes the fee. It does not change the requirements.
The documents that make this checkable are the rules of certification, the impartiality policy, the confidentiality policy, and the appeals and complaints procedure. They are listed further down this page.
The board
The board is responsible for the Institute rather than for any individual certification decision, which is why the two sit in different places on this page. The current board, and the office each director holds, is available from the office on request. Directors declare commercial interests in training providers and fabricators under the impartiality policy listed below, so that a conflict is managed on the record rather than on trust.
The Education and Certification Committee
The committee’s stated objectives, in AWI’s own words, are to undertake, arrange and promote education, training, qualification and certification for the benefit of members and the welding industry, and to work closely with Australian TAFE bodies, training providers and related government agencies to strengthen the national training agenda.
Its aims are more specific:
- identify qualification and certification opportunities that benefit the industry, and implement them
- align the qualification and certification system to the national training agenda and to other recognised certification bodies where that alignment benefits holders
- administer an Australian national qualification and certification system independently, built around welder certification and welding supervision under AS 1796, welding supervision under AS 2214, and welding fabrication inspection
- administer certification against AS/NZS ISO 3834 for fabricators
- review the system periodically for conformance and for improvement
The committee is intended to include training providers, the relevant national skills body, industry, and AWI itself. Bringing the training providers inside the committee is what keeps the scheme deliverable: a certification requirement that no training organisation can actually teach is a certificate nobody can get.
The committee sets and reviews what each scheme requires. Its membership and its terms of reference are available from the office on request.
Governing documents
Four documents govern how certification decisions are made. They exist and they are referenced from the current site.
| Document | Reference | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| Rules of Certification | AWI-C-M-002 Rev B | What a certificate means, the obligations on the holder, and the grounds on which AWI may suspend or withdraw one. |
| Impartiality Policy | AWI-C-POL-003 Rev C | How conflicts of interest are identified and managed, including conflicts arising from sponsorship and from directors’ commercial interests. |
| Confidentiality Policy | AWI-C-POL-004 Rev B | What AWI does with the information an applicant provides, and what it will and will not disclose. |
| Appeals and Complaints Procedure | AWI-C-P-003 Rev A | How to challenge a certification decision, who hears the appeal, and the timeframes that apply. |
Each of these documents exists at the revision shown. They are being republished at stable addresses so you can link to one from your own quality system instead of chasing a file. Until then they are available from the office on request: email graham.fry@welding.org.au with the document reference.