The MSM30216 Certificate III in Surface Preparation and Coating Application provides the trade-level competencies required to perform the wide range of surface preparation and protective coating application operations that occur across a range of heavy industry, ships and infrastructure.

The surfaces being prepared are typically metal (usually ferrous) and may be structural or have other mechanical requirements. The protective coatings may be liquid or solid. The applied coating may, or may not be the final coat and its purpose is protective, not decorative.

People with this qualification would be expected to work under routine supervision only, preparing surfaces and/or applying protective coatings in accordance with a provided technical specification. They would be expected to recognise situations where the intended approach was not appropriate/not working and take appropriate action to ensure the final result is satisfactory.

People with this qualification may be expected to undertake some combination of:

• abrasively blast clean surfaces to Australian Standard requirements and in accordance with the specification
• prepare surfaces for coating as required by the specification
• apply liquid protective surface coatings
• apply solid polymer surface coatings (this is usually a specialised area).

They may work in a manufacturer's factory or they may work as contractors on the site of the plant/ship/infrastructure.

This work may be undertaken:

• in a factory environment
• in an onsite, outdoors environment
• inside a vessel or other confined space
• outside a vessel or structure
• at heights
• some combination of these.