There's been a good bit of lip service paid to the need for high quality, convenient, readily accessible training and education for manufacturers with in-house heat treating or thermal processing. To-date, the only organization with a solid reputation for this type of training and education is ASM International (www.asminternational.org/training).

New to the game is the Metal Treating Institute (MTI) (www.heattreatonline.com). MTI's new Online Academy at www.MTIAcademy.com is offering an attractive alternative for training and educating employees which has several substantial advantages. It's the best training system I've seen for the following reasons:

  • ...Reasonably priced - Up to 10 employees can have unlimited usage to MTI's current list of 11 different training courses as well as their future courses for an annual subscription of $1,100. Volume discounts are available for more employees. Up to 250 employees can have access to all the courses for $4,400/year.
  • Easily accessible - All of the courses are web-based and are self-paced with 15 days to complete them. Employees can work on the courses from home or during work, effectively eliminating travel expenses and scheduling conflicts.
  • Accountability - Managers can assign specific courses to specific employees. The manager can track progress including graded quiz scores and a report that shows how long a person spent reviewing the online material before taking the quiz. Once the employee completes the course, a certificate of completion can be presented to the employee and the manager can print the same certificate to be placed in the employee's file. This is a real benefit when you can present an OSHA inspector a certificate of completion for each of MTI's 5 workplace safety courses for all your employees. It shows that you take workplace safety training seriously and OSHA moves on to a less prepared victim!
  • Easily managed - MTI's Academy for Heat Treaters makes it easy for managers to oversee the education and training of employees. Assignments, progress reports, and completion status is all online.

What courses are currently being offered? The latest list can be viewed at www.MTIAcademy.com. As of this printing, the courses being offered are.

  • Confined Space & Workplace Safety ($40 if taken without an annual subscription)
  • Emergency Planning in Workplace Safety ($40)
  • ABC's of Heat Treating - Equipment ($40)
  • ABC's of Heat Treating - Processes ($40)
  • ABC's of Heat Treating - Materials ($40)
  • ABC's of Heat Treating - Metallurgy & Heat Treating Theory ($40)
  • ABC's of Heat Treating - Quality, Inspection, and Testing ($40)
  • Heat Treat for Beginners ($20)
  • Lockout/Tagout and Workplace Safety ($40)
  • Workplace Safety Orientation ($40)
  • Hazardous Communications & Workplace Safety ($40)


Try the demo course at no charge. Look for "A Demo Course - MTI Academy for Heat Treaters (FREE)" on the right-hand side of the Academy's home page.

If you have any questions about the Academy, call Tom Morrison at MTI - the Academy's "headmaster" and brain trust behind the online modules. Mr. Morrison's phone is (904) 249-0448. IH