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By Donovan Swift
Nov 03, 2025
A key element of ASTM International’s mission is to help the world work better and help make life safer for everyone. Volunteer members are the key to fulfilling that mission and creating consensus standards that help keep people safer and help industry grow.
ASTM also improves industry by helping train and maintain a competent workforce. Standards are integral to many industries, and that’s why ASTM offers training on many standards, and the experience and knowledge gained during these trainings can translate to greater success in the workforce. Employees can gain experience that makes them more proficient, and employers can send their workers to prove and maintain competency.
ASTM’s Live Training program offers a broad range of training opportunities that are varied and flexible for learners with different needs. The trainings cover many of ASTM’s standards in industries such as metals, the environment, coal, cannabis, and others.
“Our program offers over 150 sessions annually anywhere in the world,” says Meghan Conan, program manager for the Live Training program. “Our instructors are industry experts who are heavily involved in the committees. These courses are offered both live onsite and live through a virtual platform. Our classes are also taught worldwide, with training centers now available in Bahrain and Dubai.”
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Along with virtual trainings, the program also offers courses in which participants can “gain hands-on experience with testing equipment,” Conan says. “The goal is to offer learners an experience that enables them to learn from both an ASTM instructor and their peers in the field. The collaborative learning that occurs in a live classroom is valuable to both new and seasoned professionals in industry.”
Course materials are developed by industry experts and committee members who themselves have input on the standards they teach, so learners can work directly with the experts who craft the standards that shape their given industry.
Paul Zovic, a member of the committee on environmental assessment, risk management, and corrective action (E50), is an instructor for courses on environmental site assessments. There are specific courses for each of the four phases of the environmental site-assessment process, and each course offers both live and virtual trainings that walk learners through how to apply the standard, such as the standard practice for environmental site assessments: phase 1 environmental site assessment process (E1527).
The main goal of the trainings is to educate learners on standards and teach them how to follow the standard in practice. “To really understand the standard, what it says, why it was developed, and to understand the terminology – that’s the goal,” Zovic says. “Another goal is to get some experience actually using the standard, whether it’s in a desktop review, doing a case study, or actually applying it in a real-life scenario.”
The trainings are open to everyone, so both producers and users benefit from the information provided.
A broad catalog of virtual and in-person trainings let professionals choose the option that works best for them.
“Whether they are a producer who conducts assessments and writes reports, or a user, the goal is to understand what quality means and how to identify good work products,” Zovic says. “There are about 400,000 of these assessments done every year in the United States, so competency matters, especially when it comes to environmental-assessment standards.”
The environmental-assessment courses are also branching out from being primarily lecture-based to providing more hands-on training at environmental sites.
“We’re doing a training for the Army National Guard in all states for environmental site assessments,” Zovic says. “And it’s more than simply teaching a standard. We’re going to do an assessment of the site, and it’s going to be a five-day training program. They not only get a lecture about the standard, but they actually do the work themselves. Essentially, they will do all the things that one does for a phase one environmental assessment.”
Harvey Hack, a member of the committee on corrosion of metals (G01), is the instructor for the “Introduction to Corrosion Electrochemistry” course, and he trains learners on specific standards from the committee. He says that trainings can be great for experienced industry professionals, but they are also a way to introduce new learners to the field of corrosion testing, providing more hands-on tests and more information than “a simple plunk and dunk, which is where you throw a piece of metal into water and wait 100 years to see what happens.”
In the corrosion testing field, just like any other industry, competency is also key. “The goal is for learners to thoroughly understand the way to run the tests and the theory behind it, so they know what they’re doing and how to interpret the data,” Hack says. “And if they do that, there’s several advantages. One is that some of these tests are actually required by people who evaluate testing laboratories. So if you want to be qualified to do this, to be able to run the standard and get the right results, you should do the trainings.”
Along with live trainings, ASTM offers OnDemand Training, which provides fully online content that is available 24/7. Learners can access these courses anywhere and move through them at their own pace. Courses are available for standards in many industries, including construction, emerging technologies, energy, and corrosion.
“Organizations use these courses as a tool in onboarding, ongoing training, and preparation for audits,” says Athena Huss, manager of the OnDemand Training program. “In addition to being a tool for employers, individuals utilize our online training to upskill for improved employment prospects or to further
their expertise through a trusted training provider.”
Just like their live training counterparts, these courses are developed and led by industry experts. Zovic is also the course instructor for the OnDemand phase one environmental assessment standard course.
“This is an ideal class for everyone,” Zovic says. “Whether you’re brand new to the field or have years of experience.”
The course offers an overview of the phase one environmental standard, as well as background on the general field of environmental assessments.
But the course also features specific training on the actual standards. Zovic says, “You’ll walk through an actual phase one assessment, where you’ll examine documents, review data, look at photos, and study the conditions of an existing commercial property.”
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OnDemand training content is always updated when standards evolve, and the trainings are an affordable solution for many companies. “We focus on efficiently providing information for busy learners and making the highly technical content interactive,” Huss says. “Our goal is to highlight the great technical content our membership develops and to bridge the gap between the technical documents and what those in the lab or field will see on the job.”
Companies find the trainings a convenient and effective way to help their workforce stay up to date with standards and workplace audits.
“The introduction of ASTM training materials into our program was a game changer,” says Gary Pasquarell, vice president of the engineering and testing firm Froehling & Robertson. “With ASTM trainings, we have professional quality training, and I know that the standard is being followed, so our people are properly trained.”
Whatever form the training takes, the goal remains the same: Standards are key to many industries, so being proficient in applying or understanding those standards is key for employers and people in the workforce. That’s why many employers send their employees to ASTM trainings, and why employees seek out the trainings themselves.
“Companies rely on quality, and they rely on employees really knowing how to apply the standard,” Zovic says. “And what better way to learn the standard than to be instructed by the people who develop the standard and who are working in the industry?”
For more information on ASTM training programs, visit https://www.astm.org/standards-and-solutions/training-courses or email train@astm.org. ●
Donovan Swift is managing editor of Standardization News.
November / December 2025
