There was a vast demand for welding design and construction courses and therefore The Institute of Welding, currently The Welding Institute, established a School of Welding Technology.

This first course, held in 1957 on the welding of pressure vessels, took place near the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. This course can be seen as a precursor to today’s TWI Training with the popularity of the course led to 100 people applying for its 40 places and quickly leading to more courses being organised until, by the early 1960s, the school had hosted more than 300 visiting lecturers.

In 1965, the BWRA and the Non-Destructive Testing Society of Great Britain created the School of Applied Non-Destructive Testing and established formal training in areas including ultrasonic weld testing and radiographic interpretation. These courses would lead to the assessment and award of a nationally recognised certification and, ultimately, the establishment of what is known today as CSWIP, the Certification Scheme for Personnel.

The Institute did not only grow as a community with the increased number of candidates showing up for the courses, but the growing number of courses as well as the variety of programmes introduced connected us more with the needs of our audience.

TWI has gone on to expand across the UK, opening offices and laboratories in Middlesbrough, Aberdeen, Port Talbot and the Advanced Manufacturing Park, South Yorkshire, as well as gaining a global presence including in North America, China, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East.

In addition to the added offices and laboratories that are now in place around the world, we have recently introduced online courses that are designed to share our senior lecturers’ extensive knowledge but also available to be personalised to you. Online courses have various benefits to them, such as time and cost savings and making the content available for on-demand study and research.

TWI Training has grown since the most formative years as part of the Institute to now include a wide variety of international training diplomas and courses such as BGAS-CSWIP, welding specialist, technologist and engineer – IIW/EWF levels, ISO 9712 compliant courses, and accredited to IOSH, NEBOSH, and more.

Hence, as the Institute has continued to serve its Members and support their professional development while promoting the welding profession to future generations, there is still plenty of scope to learn new skills through TWI Training, fulfilling yet another of the original goals of The Welding Institute.