IIW History 1948-1958

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B. Training of Engineers. In the Commission 's view, all modern engineers are bound to come into contact with welding in the course of their career ; before studying the training of the welding engineer, it has therefore given priority to the problem of instruc– tion in welding in the general training of engineers. After an enquiry, from which it was apparent that welding is not always taught, in a way appropriate to its present development, to those studying to become engineers, the Com– mission prepared and circulated in 1953 and 1954 a standard syllabus for minimum instruction in welding which was intended to be incorporated into the general training of all engineers. ·with regard to the training of the welding engineer, that is to say a specialist engineer particularly concerned 'vith welding, the Commission is still working on this problem. However, certain general conclusions have already been reached. In particular, the Commission has clearly laid down that the welding engineer must, before all else, be qualified in one of the traditional branches of engineering to be able to make proper use of an expert knowledge of welding acquired later by means of specialised studies. The recommendations to be drawn up concerning teaching syllabuses will certainly take account of this view, which the Commission holds unanimously. Finally, the Commission is at present dealing with the special case of the engineer in the design office, who is not necessarily a welding engineer but whose training should include more detailed information on certain aspects of welding than can at present be gained from the ordinary syllabuses. C. Training and Qualification of Operators. The Commission considered itself obliged to undertake first the study of the qualifications of operators in order, as mentioned above, to be able to draw conclusions from them on instruction. The necessity to decide upon the criteria by which the qualification tests of welders should be judged has lead Commission X IV to work in liaison with Commission V (Testing, Measurement and Control of Vilelds), which is interested in the same problem from the point of view of the testing of welds, whether destructive or not. The results of the work so far completed are contained in t wo important reports prepared by lVIr. ZrnKwEG (N etherlands) and in a report published by lVIr. VIKTER (Denmark) in which the various aspects of the qualification of welders are methodically classified. At present, the appropriate Sub-Commissions of Commissions XI\ and V, on the basis of general principles approved in 1957 at Essen, are preparing a general recommendation which, in each country, may serve as a basis for special rules and which will, at the same time, provide guidance for Commission X IV in con– nexion with its work on instruction. In addition, the Commission has been concerned with the recruitment and training of instructors in practical welding. The investigation carried out 111 this connexion: by lVIr. GOLDSCHMIDT-CLERMOK'l' (Belgium) resulted, in 1957, 111 a report which the Governing Council decided should be published (1). 4. FUTURE PROGRAMME. 'l'he future programme of work of the Commission can be deduced from the preceding report which concerns work in hand that will, in any case, have to be reviewed from time to time, since teaching is in constant evolution. It should , nevertheless, be added that the Commission wishes to establish, as soon as possible, a general memorandum on the results of its activity and on the conclusions it has reached on various problems ; the present report in fact constitutes a brief resume of such a memorandum.

( 1) Dncnment XI\" -75-57.