New Welder Traineeship and Apprenticeship Schemes to Help Bridge 38,000 Shortfall in UK Welders

To educate and train a new generation of UK-based welders, the Weldability-Sif Foundation has entered into partnership with EAL and The Welding Institute to install specialist welder training facilities. The partnership has so far helped 15 colleges to install such facilities, each with seven distinct and new EAL qualifications.

To-day, UK manufacturing searches the World for trained and qualified workers to undertake welding projects – a costly undertaking.

The Partnership, by supporting manufacturing with help in welder training, is providing opportunities for students of all ages to enter into a fulfilling career and a somewhat rewarding one - some qualified welders can earn as much as £100,000 per annum.

To-date, nearly 2,000 students have completed the level 1 qualifications – covering Metal Insert Gas and manual metal arc welding as well as oxy-acetylene welding – with hundreds more registering across the UK.

The first college to provide the qualifications was North Hertfordshire College, in Stevenage, where a new specialist training facility with state of the art welding equipment, welding bays and a sponsored classroom for theory lessons was installed by the Weldability-Sif Foundation. It was officially opened in 2011 by John Hayes MP, the then Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning, who was struck by the enthusiasm and commitment of the young people as well as the excellent facilities. 300 students have since enrolled on welding courses in Stevenage.

The Weldability-Sif Foundation has also established a Welder Traineeship and Welder apprenticeship course at this college. The courses will use a blend of Level 1 and 2 skills qualifications alongside E-learning and the new VirtuWeld, virtual reality facility, together with real life practical welding facilities. It is hoped that these arrangements will be available across the UK throughout the network created by the Foundation.

The Association of Welding Distribution says that 50,000 people need to start welder training at level 1 and 2 within the next three to five years, with a proportion progressing to level 3 to counteract the declining workforce in the Nuclear Energy Industry and help meet the Government’s energy plans, which includes over £200billion of investment in new nuclear power stations, wind and wave generators, among other projects. On the 4th February 2013, Margaret Hodge MP stated on BBC Radio 4 that construction of Nuclear waste storage facilities underground, had stalled, due to the lack of qualified welders.

Adrian Hawkins, a Director and Trustee of the Weldability-Sif Foundation and a former student at North Hertfordshire College said: “With major build programmes rolling out in the renewable and sustainable energy markets expecting to make the UK self-sufficient for energy from 2020, which alone will require some 20,000 trained welders. Combined with the decline in the availability of existing welders, we will need at least another 38,000 to meet UK demand.”

Ann Watson, Managing Director of EAL said: “EAL is committed to investing in the industries it serves and the UK welding sector is an important one of these. The level 1 skill qualifications are providing a vital bridge between those who are retiring and the new generation of welding professionals needed to meet the needs of the UK’s future engineering and manufacturing projects.

The partnership will not only up-skill thousands of welding students but also provide a trained and qualified workforce.”