I use the local vocational school in central Ohio to train my welders that manufacture axle housings. They use AWS-certifed instructors and work from the textbook "Modern Welding" by Althouse, Turnquist, Bowditch & Bowditch (all AWS members).
As far as testing them, I use AWS D1.1, and choose the particular test plate from the qualification chapter 4 and interpret the results as directed in that chapter. At my plant once a welder passes a plate test he is considered qualified and no other tests are given.
As far as duration, I classify the welders in our gage tracking system to get automatic notifications similar to a gage calibration that is due. I do this on a semi-annual basis since our rule is if you do not perform the welding assignment for longer than 180 days the certification expires. At each semi-annual period I will confirm that each welder is still performing his/her assignment properly.
Otherwise the welder qualification at our plant is indefinite as long as the idle period is not exceeded. It is not a perfect system, we are a union shop and workers can transfer to non-welding assignments and still keep their cert. So I have to make manual entries occasionally to keep the cert dates accurate. This may not work out in the field on code welding but for manufacturing it has been fine and has been accepted by the ISO and QS auditors.
