Industrial Radiographer Licence Conditions in Qatar
October 5, 2026
12 min read
DITEC Experts, Radiation Protection Team, ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting
One role, two sets of conditions
One point before anything else. Meeting the conditions in the Decision is what you can prepare for. Whether a licence is granted, and when, is a decision of the competent authority alone, and nothing in this explanation and nothing in any course is a commitment that a licence will be issued or that it will be issued within a given period. What this article does is set out the condition as the instrument states it and point to the training that bears on it.
The industrial radiographer is the person who actually makes the exposure: he sets the collimator, cranks the source out of the camera, monitors the boundary of the controlled area with a survey meter, then returns the source to its shield, and does not treat the exposure as finished until a measurement confirms that the source is actually back. The supervisor decides and the radiographer does, and the schedule of Decision 4 of 2007 treats the two as separate licences with separate conditions.
What makes item 2 different from item 1 is that it is split in two. The schedule gives one set of conditions for the practices that existed before the Law was issued and another for the practices that came after it, under the headings A, practices before the issue of the Law and B, practices after the issue of the Law. The two sets are not a transitional period with an end date and they are not easier and harder versions of the same thing: they differ in the academic floor and they differ in the number of years, and they differ in opposite directions. This article reads both. The split itself, which appears in items 2 and 3 of the industrial schedule, is the subject of the fourth article in this batch.
The track for practices after the Law
This is the track that applies to a practice set up after the Law. It sets five conditions. First, that he hold a diploma in a branch of engineering or sciences, two years after general secondary, at minimum. Second, that he pass a training course in the field of industrial radiography at Level II from an approved centre. Third, that he pass a training course in radiation protection in industrial applications from an approved centre. Fourth, that he have practical experience in the field of industrial radiography of not less than one year. Fifth, that he pass the prescribed medical examination.
Three observations. The academic condition is a diploma and the Decision defines it in the text itself as two years after general secondary, so there is no room to argue about what a diploma means here, and the field is fixed to a branch of engineering or sciences exactly as it is for the supervisor. The radiography condition is a Level II training course, not a Level II certificate: compare the supervisor, where the Decision asks for a certificate at Level III. And the experience is one year, practical, in the field of industrial radiography.
One year of experience and a diploma is the lightest combination in the radiography group that still carries the full set of five conditions, and it is worth being clear about what that one year is for. It is not a probation period created by the Decision and it is not satisfied by a year on site in another trade. It is a year of practical experience in the field the condition names, and the usual route to it is the trainee licence in the third part of the schedule, which is covered in the fourth article of this batch.
The track for practices before the Law
The earlier track lowers the academic floor and raises the experience. It sets five conditions. First, that he hold the general secondary certificate or its equivalent, at minimum. Second comes the radiography condition, which has an alternative inside it and is set out below. Third, that he pass the radiation protection course in industrial applications from an approved centre. Fourth, that he have experience in the field of industrial radiography of not less than five years. Fifth, the prescribed medical examination.
The alternative inside the radiography condition is the one difference of substance in this item that has no parallel on the later track; the remaining differences are differences of wording that we do not read a rule into, as follows. The text reads that he pass a training course in the field of industrial radiography at Level II from an approved centre, or that he pass the examination the Council decides in respect of those who were trained locally. So a person trained locally may reach the same condition by passing an examination the authority sets, instead of by holding the Level II course. The Decision does not describe that examination, does not say who sits it, and does not set a syllabus for it: it says only that the authority decides it. Anyone who intends to rely on this route has to ask the Ministry whether the examination exists today, who may sit it, and what it covers, and keep the answer. Nothing here says it is available.
Two wording differences between the two tracks are worth recording and not worth building an argument on. On the earlier track the radiation protection condition is written as a course and on the later track as a training course, and the earlier experience condition says experience while the later says practical experience. We note the difference because a reader comparing the two paragraphs will see it, and we do not read a rule into it: the Institute does not treat a difference in wording as a difference in requirement unless the authority says so. If the point matters to your file, put the two paragraphs side by side in your enquiry and ask.
The two tracks compared
The table sets the two tracks of item 2 against each other. It is a reading of the two paragraphs of that item and nothing is added to it.
Item 2, track A against track B
| Condition | A, practices before the Law | B, practices after the Law |
|---|---|---|
| Academic floor | General secondary certificate or its equivalent, at minimum | Diploma in a branch of engineering or sciences, two years after secondary |
| Radiography condition | Level II training course, or the examination the authority sets for those trained locally | Level II training course, with no alternative stated |
| Experience | Not less than five years in the field of industrial radiography | Not less than one year, practical, in the field of industrial radiography |
| Radiation protection and medical conditions | Both present: the radiation protection course in industrial applications from an approved centre, and the prescribed medical examination | Both present: a training course in radiation protection in industrial applications from an approved centre, and the prescribed medical examination |
Before you decide which track you are on
Choosing the track is the first decision in the file and the one most often made by assumption. The points below are the Institute's working practice when we review a radiographer file, not requirements of the Decision.
Reviewing a radiographer file
The track follows the practice, not the person
- The two headings describe practices, not applicants: practices before the issue of the Law and practices after it. So the question is about the practice you are being licensed for, and a long career does not by itself put a person on the earlier track.
- If you are not certain which heading your practice falls under, that is the question to put to the Ministry first, because every other condition in the file depends on the answer.
Do not plan around the local examination without asking
- The alternative in track A is an examination the authority decides. The Decision creates the possibility and leaves the content, the eligibility and the existence of a sitting entirely to the authority. Ask before you build a timetable on it.
Keep the Level II course and the radiation protection course apart
- They are two conditions in both tracks, with different subjects, and the Decision requires that each be taken from a centre the authority recognises. One certificate cannot answer both, whichever track you are on.
Document the year, or the five years, against the field
- Both tracks tie the experience to the field of industrial radiography. Dates, the practice, the source types and the role are what make a letter evidence of that field rather than evidence of employment.
Questions we are asked about this item
Is the earlier track still open?
The two paragraphs quoted here contain no end date for paragraph A and no lapse provision. What it does is tie it to practices before the issue of the Law, which narrows it by its own terms as those practices end. Whether a given practice today falls under that heading is a question for the Ministry and not something this explanation can answer for you.
Does the diploma have to be in engineering or sciences?
On the later track, yes: the condition names a diploma in a branch of engineering or sciences and defines the level as two years after general secondary. A diploma of the right length in a field outside those two families is not within the condition as written. On the earlier track the academic condition is a general secondary certificate or its equivalent, with no field named at all.
I hold a Level II certificate. Is that the same as the Level II course?
The Decision asks the radiographer to pass a training course in industrial radiography at Level II from a centre the authority recognises. It asks the supervisor, in the entry above, for a certificate at Level III. The two wordings differ and we do not resolve the difference for you: present what you hold, name the centre, and ask the Ministry whether it answers the condition as written. That is a shorter route than arguing it after a file is returned.
Can I work while I build up the one year of experience?
The schedule has a provision for exactly this situation in its third part, and it is a licence of its own with a condition attached to it: a trainee licence is granted to a person who meets the conditions of the licence sought except the experience condition, and in that case the holder may practise only under the supervision of a licensed person. The fourth article in this batch sets that out, and it is worth reading before you assume the year can be spent unlicensed.
Which track has the harder conditions?
Neither, and that is the point. The earlier track asks less academically and five times as much experience; the later track asks a diploma in a named field and one year. They are two different balances struck for two different populations, and a person who satisfies one may fail the other. So the track is not a choice to be optimised: it follows from the practice being licensed.
How the Institute can help
Two findings recur on radiographer files. The first is a track chosen by the length of the applicant's career rather than by the practice being licensed, which produces a file assembled against the wrong five conditions from the first page. The second is a plan built on the local examination in track A without ever having asked the Ministry whether it is set, who may sit it and what it covers.
The Institute delivers radiation protection training for industrial applications, reads a file against the conditions of the track that actually applies, drafts the enquiry to the Ministry on the track question and on the local examination, and advises on how a trainee period is recorded so that the year of experience is evidenced when the licence is applied for. Level I, II and III industrial radiography certification is a separate qualification obtained from a centre that provides it, and the Institute does not issue it.
Scope of what the Institute does: training and consulting. Field radiation surveys are carried out through specialist partners. The Institute does not carry out laboratory analysis, instrument calibration or equipment testing.
A technical note. The conditions in this Decision are licensing conditions, not site work instructions. Meeting them, and the licence that may follow, replaces nothing in operational protection: every exposure has a controlled-area boundary that is monitored with a working survey meter, and the exposure is not finished, and the site is not approached, until a measurement confirms that the source has returned to its shield. The return of the source is not inferred from a mechanical indicator, from resistance felt on the crank, or from counting turns. These are obligations on the licensee under the Law, the Regulation and the conditions of his own licence, and their place is not this Decision.
A note on one word. The Decision repeatedly requires a course to be taken from a centre it describes with an Arabic word that this explanation renders as approved. The Decision does not name who gives that approval and does not say whether it is a general status or given for a particular course. In the Decision this description qualifies the training centre and no other body. The English word is a rendering chosen for this explanation and is not a term of art: our practical reading is to ask in the Arabic wording of the Decision, naming the specific course and the specific centre, and to keep the answer in writing, because what the instrument leaves open the authority settles. The Institute is a licensed training provider and describes itself that way and no other way.
A note on the authority named in the text. The word the Decision uses for the authority is the Council. It is the word of a 2007 instrument whose preamble refers to the Executive Regulation issued by decision of the President of the Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves, number 4 of 2003. The body that word names no longer exists. Competence today sits with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and the unit concerned is named in the organisational decisions as the Radiation Protection Department. The word Council is kept only where this explanation renders what the instrument itself says, because that is the instrument's own word; in the Institute's own advice it is written as the Ministry. Read Council as the Ministry throughout.
This explanation is published for awareness by the radiation protection team at ALDuha Institute for Training and Environmental Consulting. The English text is an explanation, not a certified translation: the Arabic text published in the Official Gazette governs in case of any difference, and the official Arabic wording of every condition discussed here is quoted in full on the Arabic version of this article. This explanation is introductory. It is not a legal opinion, it does not replace the conditions of your own licence, and it does not replace review by the regulator. Last updated 5 October 2026.