Nirajkumar Marfatia, a professional with a passion for continuous career development

Niraj Marfatia graduated in engineering and fabrication from SVNIT Surat, South Gujarat University in India back in 2002, before migrating to Australia in 2011 and has been working in the oil and gas industry for over 17 years now.

Following his graduation, he noticed some of his friends were taking NDT training and certificates, so he started on the same path. By adding professional certificates to his academic qualification, he was soon able to land his first job as an NDT Technician where he performed various conventional methods such as magnetic particle testing (MT), penetrant testing (PT) and ultrasonic testing (UT).

Niraj has worked in different countries and, for more than 5.5 years, has been with Civmec Construction and Engineering in Perth, Australia, as a Senior(Lead) QC inspector where he has been responsible for subsea, mining, infra-structure and oil & gas projects.

He has been attending training courses at TWI for a long time and already holds various CSWIP certificates. In 2007, he took a bridging course from AWS CWI to CSWIP 3.1 and in 2010 he did his CSWIP 3.2.2 Senior Welding Inspector as well as BGAS grade 2 and 3. Niraj is also a lead auditor in QMS and OHSAS and holding AWS – Senior Certified Welding Inspector certification as well.

"I don’t want to walk in the crowd, I want to get recognized, and the way I take action on my goal is by undertaking these professional certifications as they have proven to pick me up from the crowd", Niraj explained.

Niraj notes that the industrial community in Australia is quite small and people know each other. Some are career oriented and are happy with what they are doing. However some people, like him, would prefer to progress themselves by taking up different courses and certificates which take them to the next level. There are various projects running at the same time and, by having qualifications in specialized fields, one can secure a higher chance of employment and promotion on these projects.

Niraj says that he likes to upgrade himself at least every three years to take a step forward in his career development and that is why he is attending a CSWIP Welding QC Coordinator course at TWI Malaysia. The CSWIP Welding QC Coordinator course is a combination of technical and managerial knowledge and, as a person who has already been in the industry for a few years and is familiar with the management aspect of the job, Niraj thinks that this course is a perfect fit for putting his experiential knowledge into a more structured context.

He finds the training facility in Malaysia very impressive. As a person who has been to various training institutes in different countries, Niraj believes that TWI Malaysia really stands out in terms of the venue, facilities and quality of the training.

Niraj said, ‘I find the lecturer to be very well experienced and knowledgeable. Whatever questions I have ever asked, he has been able to address them perfectly and the way the course is laid out in sequences is very easy to follow and grasp.’ Niraj also noted that he finds the homework very useful in making him feel prepared and confident for the exam.