THE WORKFORCE DILEMMA At a recent speech I made in India, I noted offhand to the audience that the main issue the nondestructive testing (NDT) field faces is a shortage of qualified inspectors. I was met with raised eyebrows and quizzical looks. I was aware enough to notice these cues, so I stopped and asked the audience if there was a shortage of qualified technicians in India. The responses caught me a little off guard. In fact, not only do they produce more than enough NDT technicians to meet India’s needs, but they export many technicians to the Middle East to support the oil and gas industry there. Moreover, the typical NDT technician in India possesses an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering or materials science, and many hold graduate degrees. While I do not know the precise statistics here in the US, or in other parts of the world for that matter, I have plenty of anecdotal evidence to know that both of these phenomena—an excess supply of NDT tech- nicians and their level of education—do not exist in the US. The most commonly received complaint that I hear from US employers about the field is there are not enough qualified NDT technicians to support the demand (the second most common complaint is about concern of the quality of the NDT being performed…perhaps the phenomena are related?). It occurred to me that ASNT’s Strategic Plan for 2022–2026 was implicitly biased toward the conditions in the United States (perhaps understandable given the “A” in ASNT stands for “American,” but certainly not where we want to be in order to be a global leader). While the workforce is a major concern here in the US, it is not so in India and perhaps other countries. I’m going to say something particularly provocative here. Is it time the US considered importing NDT talent (from India, or any other country capable of producing qualified professionals)? I’m familiar with all of the political arguments supporting or opposing this concept. I’m just reducing the discussion to the simple economics of supply and demand. The US has an unmet demand for qualified NDT technicians, and India (and perhaps other countries) has a surplus supply of that talent. The only thing preventing ready access to this talent pool is policy created by the body politic. Should ASNT use its influence to help eliminate immigration barriers to employers so they can access the qualified talent pools outside the US? The alternative is to allow the current condition to continue until either the labor markets self-correct (which may take more than a generation), or until other organizations like ASNT can apply their (limited) resources to help generate more NDT technicians to meet demand (which will take considerable time and funding). I am curious as to your thoughts on this discussion. As always, I invite comments to ncouture@asnt.org. NEAL J. COUTURE, CAE ASNT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NCOUTURE@ASNT.ORG LEADERSHIP | SCOPE SHOULD ASNT USE ITS INFLUENCE TO HELP ELIMINATE IMMIGRATION BARRIERS TO EMPLOYERS SO THEY CAN ACCESS QUALIFIED TALENT POOLS OUTSIDE THE US? N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2 • M AT E R I A L S E V A L U AT I O N 69