LEVEL 4 ENGINEER EXAMINATIONS TO BS EN ISO 15257
Level 4 Certification of Competence is a requirement for the design of Cathodic Protection (CP) systems in all the BS, EN and ISO Cathodic Protection Standards. See the attached brochure on the ICorr CP Scheme and the Standards for more details.
It is expected that Candidates will already have Certification for Level 3 in the Sector in which they are applying and the requisite experience (see Preliminaries item 8 below). They must have passed the L3 Examination in that Sector, there is no dispensation.
Examinations:
All Level 4 examinations are presently held in Northampton at the Institute of Corrosion HQ, Corrosion House; see https://www.icorr.org They will be held typically 4 times per year; the facility is spacious, complies with UK Governments rules and guidance related to C-19. It is a short walk from the station; there is a modern budget hotel and parking nearby. Candidates are required to book one of the dates below; no other dates will be available. If one date does not suit you, choose another from the list. If there is limited demand for a particular date, we may cancel that from the programme and allocate your booking to the next examination date, whilst advising you. We will strive to avoid delaying your examination by more than 3-4 months. The examination is closed book, desk based, handwritten, with no practical element (this is in the mandatory L3) and is expected to take some 6.5 Hours, in 3 sessions with breaks between. A simple calculator, a Casio FX-991EX) will be provided; you will not be permitted access to any other electronic device. IF you are sitting the examination for more than one Sector (Buried, Steel in Concrete, Marine, Internals) you will need to sit for more than one date of those below:
Thursdays: 2026: 26 February, 4 June, 10 September, 26 November    Â
Examination arrangements are:
Book and pay for the Examination at least 1 month before the date you plan to attend. Do not attend unless you have confirmation of your place from Corrosion House.
Start 0900 Hrs: Book in, identification (passport or driving licence with picture), remove mobiles, laptops, smart watches, calculators to locked facility. No access to these during the day. Tea or coffee.
Expect to start examination at 0930 Hrs
Core: Applies to all Sectors: 2.5 Hours, 0930 to 1200 Hrs If you have previously passed the Core Examination, you may, after notifying Corrosion House, plan to arrive no later than 1215 Hrs to book in as above and be ready to commence as below, or you can arrive during the morning and finish early:
Break for lunch (provided)
Design Sector Specific: 2 Hrs, 1245 to 1445 Hrs
Break for tea or coffee
Performance Assessment: Sector Specific: 2 Hrs, 1500 to 1700 Hrs
Collect mobiles, laptops, calculators etc and depart building 1715 Hrs
Preliminaries:
- It is expected that candidates will only be sitting the Level 4 ISO 12527 examination if they are planning to apply to ICorr for certification for Level 4. This is an entirely separate process. It requires a separate application form and a certification fee; it involves an independent assessment of the candidate’s work experience, a refereed Application and a Dossier detailing completed complex projects.
- All Candidates must be competent in all the key tasks and knowledge required at Level 3 in the CP Sector for which you are applying at Level 4. Accordingly, you must have a valid Level 3 Examination pass in all parts of the examination, the Core, the Sector Specific and the Sector Specific Practical Examination; there is no dispensation available to avoid this.
- If you do not already have Level 3 certification and your cv clearly shows that it is likely that you do meet the experience requirements for Level 4, you can sit the Level 3 examination without attending the Level 3 Course. This includes the Level 3 Practical examination in the Sector(s) applicable to your intended Level 4 application(s). If you pass the examinations, you may choose to obtain L3 certification, but need not delay your application for L4, but if you fail the certification for L3 you will fail for L4.
- At present there are no ICorr Level 4 Courses; you are expected to have learned the skills and gained the competence by working alongside CP Engineers or Specialists more experienced than you, preferably Certificated to Level 4, and by personal study and attending conferences and courses. This is expected to have taken some years of supervised design and other challenging CP work after your Level 3 certification.
- The main difference between L3 and L4 is that the latter requires the competence and the experience of undertaking, without guidance, complicated and detailed CP designs. The full requirements are summarised as being competent in the of design cathodic protection systems, to establish and validate cathodic protection criteria and testing procedures, to interpret standards, codes, specifications and procedures, to designate the particular cathodic protection test methods and procedures to be used, to interpret the reported results of cathodic protection testing and use them in performance verification, to determine any remedial actions and to carry out and supervise all Level 1,2 and 3 duties.
- Level 4 personnel shall have a detailed knowledge of corrosion theory, cathodic protection design, installation, commissioning, testing and performance evaluation including safety in at least one application sector, competence to undertake without supervision the design of complex cathodic protection systems in at least one application sector, sufficient theoretical knowledge and practical experience of cathodic protection to select cathodic protection testing methods, survey requirements and performance criteria. They shall have competence to evaluate and interpret results of cathodic protection performance in accordance with existing standards, codes and specifications, competence to assist in establishing testing and performance criteria where none are otherwise available and a general familiarity with cathodic protection in other application sectors.
- The examination is designed to test these abilities. It will be challenging; some candidates will fail.
- The separate certification procedure will more rigorously assess these by way of your experience and what you can document in terms of projects, including complex CP designs. Certification to L4 requires 3 to 8 years’ CP experience [dependent on qualifications] if progressing from full Certification at Level 3, or 5 to 12 years’ experience if applying directly for Level 4 after only passing the L3 examination. You may sit the L4 examination early, but the above experience requirements will be used in your certification assessment after you pass the examination. You will need to prepare a detailed dossier detailing more than one and ideally 3 detailed designs in each Sector. You will not achieve certification until your experience has been assessed and you are likely to be interviewed by the ICorr Professional Assessment Committee during this process.
