National Alliance for NDE Education and Workforce Development – Current Challenges and Potential Paths Forward

Abstract

As part of the technical program at the 30th ASNT Research Symposium, held in June 2022 in St. Louis, Missouri, a two-part distinct and relevant-to-the-topic event took place. There have been similar events held at various nondestructive evaluation (NDE)-related events in the past, discussing similar issues and challenges.1,2 The first part featured an education session, in which several invited speakers engaged in NDE education at a community college and at several universities (some in association with Los Alamos National Laboratory) presented an overview of their NDE academic programs, challenges they endure in sustaining their programs, and their perspective on what is required to sustain and move their programs forward. The second part included a panel discussion and subsequent breakout sessions. A detailed background on these two program components and the collective discussions that took place during this event are presented in this article.