IIW White Paper

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.

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Through Optimum Use and Innovation of Welding and Joining Technologies

Improving Global Quality of Life