Within the context of an agreement between ACQPA and the Norwegian organisation FROSIO (Faglig Råd for Opplæring og Sertifisering av InspectØrer innen Overflatebehandlingsfagene ….http://www.nts.no/frosio ), ACQPA produces inspector certificates "ACQPA-FROSIO" for coating protection against corrosion.

These certificates attest the inspector's qualification is conform at the Norwegian standard NS 476 and the European standard ENV 12837.

With this certificate, the inspectors benefit from the FROSIO label, and can use it throughout the world for advice, control and inspection missions on protective work sites where this label is required.

The 2 standards (NS 476 an ENV 12837) define that the certified inspector has met the following two criteria :

1. He has a technical professional experience in the domain of anticorrosion protective coating, where the minimum duration is dependant on the initial level of his education.

2. He has passed with success a one day practical and a theoretical exam

If the inspector has more than 2 years of professional experience in anticorrosion protective coating, he is an "inspector" (red card), if not he is an "assistant inspector" (green card).

The certificate is renewable every 5 years. ACQPA decides upon renewal after examination of the professional activity file in the field during the period. The same applies for the transformation of a certificate from assistant inspector to inspector.

For further details, please check the ACQPA/FROSIO inspector's certification rules of which the summary is given here and it is possible to copy from this site.

Inspectors' certification rules

1. Purpose
2. Definitions
3. Management (period of validity, ACQPA and certified inspector responsibility)
4. First admission procedure
5. Procedure for the transformation from assistant inspector or exam certificate to certified inspector.
6. Modalité de renouvellement du certificat
7. third party complaints
8. Penaltys
9. Appeal
10. juridical scope of a certificate
11. fraud and falsification
12. Lawsuit
13. Fees and financial condition


see paragraph 7 to download annexes

1 - Firstly, contact one of the 2 training centres agreed by ACQPA, who will send you an enrolment file.

2 - You have to send this file to ACQPA (inspectors' certification committee) for the admission of the candidature.

The enrolment file for the examination ACQPA/FROSIO (double page blue/violet) must be duly completed, and accompanied by the required paperwork and fees.


The files must be filled out carefully because the inspectors' certification committee can only decide about the admissibility based on the information on the form, particularly on the subject of professional experience and inspection mission on protective coating.

Then, ACQPA will give you the admissibility result. In the case of a positive answer, you can confirm your inscription for the training session at the centre of your choice.

Depending upon the training centre and the session dates than you choose you have to send the enrolment file before the deadline to ACQPA.

For 2007-2008 the provisional dates and deadline for the training are as follows :

Note : The training dates are only provisional. Training depends on the number of trainers.

The training centres are agreed by ACQPA and FROSIO on the basis of an educational team and the respect of the training program defined by FROSIO ("FROSIO curriculum rev.1 , 24/03/1999")

This program includes modules divided into subjects :
- Specific subjects (competency and essential knowledge about inspector's job)
- Basic subjects (minimum knowledge for someone working in the metallic structures protective field)
- And "peripheral" subjects.

The program is spread over the 2 weeks of training and has to respect the time allocated for each module :

Two centres are authorised (see paragraph 3 "How to obtain certification…")

- L'ISITV (Toulon)
- Le CAST (Lyon)

Annex 1 : Application field

Inspector's certification