Ian McLean: Weld Development Supervisor

Ian McLean works at Babcock International Group as a Weld Development Supervisor. He recently took the course for CSWIP Welding Inspector PLUS Theory Pre-course eLearning, from 20-24 March.

We spoke to Ian about his experience of the training and how he thinks it will help him with his work.

Initiating the conversation, he talked about how his responsibilities at work as a welding development supervisor include him and his colleague, Ryan, overseeing the Rosyth welding apprentice training programme in addition to supervising the internal and external (sub-contractor) weld testing.

Ian further mentioned that his youngest son has special needs, so his 4-day work week gives him a good amount of time to help his wife out at home taking care of the family with her. This takes a lot of pressure off his family and allows him to balance his work and family life.

Ian took the CSWIP 3.1 weld inspection course with us at TWI. He explained how he has taken other welding inspection certifications, but none of them are as recognised or stand out like the courses at TWI.

He explained, ‘When the opportunity to go on the CSWIP 3.1 course through Babcock Learning and Development came across, I knew it was a qualification that would really help me in my current role and in the future if I decide to move into different positions within Babcock Rosyth.’

He continued, ‘The course content really helped me understand things in a way that you could answer the questions by having the background knowledge. The e-learning also gave me a great foundation before actually starting the course.’

Ian added, ‘The lecturer, David Clark, really took time to explain anything I was struggling to grasp, he was great at simplifying the information, in a way that it became knowledge that stayed in our memory,’ continuing, ‘The Lecturer simplified everything and the farther the course went on, the information all started to fall into place, helping me have the knowledge to sit through the exam and feel confident about the outcome.’

He mentioned that, after this course, he is making up his mind to eventually do his CSWIP 3.2 senior welding inspection course.

At the end of the interview, we asked Ian what he would like to say to other candidates who are sitting on the decision to take this course; to which he replied, ‘Don’t put it off! I have been sitting with the idea of doing this course for the past 10-15 years and have been worrying about failing the course. But the course content will give you all you need along with the confidence to pass the exam.’