On Monday 30th September 2024 John Fletcher (ICorr past president 2014-2016) will stand down as the ICorr Surface Treatment Training Scheme Manager (STSM) and hand over this role to Dr Jane Lomas, who has been the Deputy since the role was formalised in 2019.Â
John’s direct involvement with the ICorr Coating Inspector training schemes started when he joined the ICorr Professional Development Training and Certification (PDTC) committee in 2007, when the scheme was managed by David Griffiths. However, the informal involvement predates 2007 when he was working at Elcometer as Technical Support Manager and had regular contact with Argyll and Ruanne who delivered the courses in Rotherham, particularly regarding new coating inspection instrumentation and tests. He joined Elcometer in April 1982, and was soon asked by President Bill Cox to join the ICorr North-West Branch to represent Elcometer as the owner of the company was busy travelling the world to develop the export market. This involvement ultimately led to him joining PDTC and to become President of ICorr.
Prior to joining Elcometer, John worked for 13 years at Philips where he was responsible for developing and implementing metal coating processes for both semiconductors and insulators for the development and manufacture of microwave components for radar systems. At the time, John did not realise that this coating related work would lead to an extensive involvement later with ICorr.
John’s technical role at Elcometer involved BSI and ISO standards work and through his informal support of the Elcometer membership of ASTM. He became a regular attendee of ASTM D01 meetings becoming Chair of D01 and finally a Director of ASTM for a three-year term which ended in 2019 and resulted in an award of lifetime excellence from the ASTM D01 committee 
in 2019.
John remains incredibly grateful for the tremendous support provided by his employer, Elcometer, for the work entailed in managing the ICorr Surface Treatment Training Schemes up to his retirement from Elcometer in December 2019, and it is his belief that they saw the long-term benefit of his relationship with ICorr to Elcometer’s core business. The STSM function is, of course, critical to the delivery of quality ICorr training courses with many sub-duties. In preparation for his Elcometer retirement, John agreed to a contract with ICorr to continue to manage the Surface Treatment Training Scheme on a one-day per week basis.
Earlier in 2010 John had become the Chair of PDTC and the involvement with Argyll Ruane grew, with David Griffiths and later with Nigel Peterson-White and Richard Green, who all delivered the classroom courses. Also in 2010, ICorr signed its first agreement with Corrodere to deliver online Coating Inspector courses. At the time John had expected that all ICorr Coating Inspector courses would be delivered online thereafter but that has proved not to be the case as there are still a substantial number of students who prefer the classroom environment, despite the additional accommodation and travel costs.
In 2013 the Argyll Ruane operation was sold to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers who are based in London. It is true to say that they were primarily interested in the NDT/NDE training courses offered by ARL and backed by BiNDT, but IMechE was soon keen to create a new agreement between IMechE A R (IAR) and ICorr. Under John’s leadership, the activity at IAR in Sheffield has developed significantly since the days when ICorr courses were delivered in temporary buildings on the outskirts of Rotherham. They now have a’state of the art’ training centre developed from a former call-centre building with rooms dedicated to ICorr course delivery and ICorr examinations.
IAR now offers ICorr courses through their regional partners in various countries, including China, where TUV just celebrated their 7th year offering ICorr courses and their 1,000 certificate just issued via the ICorr scheme.
For their part, Corrodere has extended the courses they can deliver online to include the Level 2 course for Insulation, Pipeline and Hot Dip Galvanising Inspectors and approximately 50% of the applications for ICorr certificate come from candidates who are based overseas.
In conclusion, John would like to express his sincere gratitude to both IAR and Corrodere for their continued support in developing and increasing the numbers of Coating Inspectors who are trained and certified by ICorr.
John will remain on ICorr’s Council in 2025, if elected at the AGM later this year and will be available to support Jane in her new role as Surface Treatment Training Scheme Manager whenever required. The Institute wishes to express its sincere thanks to John for more than 40 years’ invaluable service to the Institute in various ways and we all wish him good health and happiness in his pending retirement.
John Fletcher – STSM Scheme Manager.
