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Improving Global Quality of Life
Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies
is considerable national concern for these topics, all over the world. Moreover, the significant investment
at national and international levels in programmes related to training and education is indicative of the
paramount importance these issues have assumed. In 1992, IIW recognised that industry would be better
served as regards training, education, qualification and certification in welding by creating a harmonised
system for welding personnel, that could be used all around the world.
IIW has then set a target of developing course syllabus guidelines and quality assurance rules for the
implementation for this harmonised system. This was done by taking over and improving the system used
in Europe by the EWF- European Federation for Welding Joining and Cutting and continually developing it
further to comply with the requirements from countries outside Europe. The International Harmonised
System for Welding Personnel was implemented by the IIW Members in 2000 and now, in 2012, is used by
44
countries.
The use of Distance Learning Courses, computer or internet based training was, since the beginning an
issue on the table as it was widely recognised that many of the IIW countries, needed to use distance
training to reach remote regions. Also many trainees needed flexible training hours as they were taking the
course while working normal hours in industry. Examples of the use of computer based technologies for
training in welding started to appear soon after the approval of the documents that create the basis for the
International System.
Australia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Spain used CBT in the training of Engineers and some of these
countries have also developed CBT for Technologist and Specialist levels since 2002 by developing CD based
course modules. After the first CBT training programme trials, the above mentioned IIW Members, started
implementing Distance Learning Courses, internet based, complying with IIW Distance Learning Course
Guidelines and Operating Procedures. These first approaches targeted the theoretical part of the courses.
Using CBT for practical training in welding is more of a challenge which has been addressed by several
countries.
Some EWF Members, led by the Belgium Welding Institute and with the EWF Secretariat support, during
the past few years have developed under the Leonardo da Vinci programme two projects which had the
goal to develop two interactive tools for the theoretical training of welders according to the IIW guideline
content for the TIG and MIG/MAG welding processes. Virtual tools that reproduce the welds for training of
welders are other examples.
Demand for training in welding technology is increasing in many of the IIW countries generating a higher
need for using IT in training. In this context, there has been an increasing effort in standardising the training
principles for welding personnel when using ICT. This new pedagogical solution combines on-site training,
e-learning methodologies, video on DVD, Video streaming allowing thousands of simultaneous end-users,
and video-conferencing. The inclusion of pedagogical approaches using ICT, therefore, aims at supporting
learning activities with video based learning resources, which represents an added-value when comparing
these with just textbook approaches.
An important Standard to assist driving the need for skilled personnel at all levels is ISO 14731 “Welding
coordination – Tasks and responsibilities”. The need for welding coordination has led to the IIW and national
welding societies producing education, training, qualification and certification (ETQ&C) programmes for the
different personnel in a Welding Coordination Team (WCT).
An example for Australia is given in
Figure 6.1
,
whereby a mixture of IIW programmes and national
programmes provide the ETQ&C requirements of all the different welding-related personnel.
