As a Professional Engineering Institution, The Welding Institute is dedicated to ensuring our Members’ professional needs are met.

To meet this need, The Welding Institute has had to adapt to the current situation that we are all facing and, although this change is challenging for everyone, it has also been an incredible opportunity for us to implement new ways of providing our services so that our Members can still access their membership benefits effectively.

Changes that Members may have noticed include:

Formal interviews are now taking place over video call, therefore cutting out the travel times and allowing The Institute to effectively reach more people, including globally!

Events are now being hosted online and are reaching a more global network of people than ever. The Welding Institute also understands the true value of face to face events and the networking opportunities they offer, however, these online events are an excellent way to keep our Members connected through these times.

The Institute is pleased to see the increasing interconnectedness of our Branches as they adapt to connecting through online mediums including video calls. It has been an opportunity for more people to get involved due to the reduced time and travel restraints of conducting Secretary and Board meetings online. This increased interconnectedness has also allowed Members from different Branches to attend and contribute to other Branch events and meetings.

The process of training volunteers has also changed for The Welding Institute, where we have been able to train more volunteers in one cohort than ever using online video call meetings. This has also enabled a more global reach for the Institute, with Members in Scotland, Nigeria, Switzerland and Anglesey being trained. This is an exciting opportunity for The Welding Institute, as the roles that our volunteers carry out allow more Members to be reached as well as allowing us to connect with engineers and technicians more globally.

To implement these new technologies and processes, The Welding Institute has worked closely with its Members, including those who carry out critical roles within Branches, to learn new systems and technologies and we would like thank all of those who worked with us on this to ensure that this process has been successful!

The Welding Institute would like to thank our Members and volunteers for their continued support, contributions and response to the new ways that The Welding Institute is adapting to!

The future for The Welding Institute

Throughout this time, the Institute is working closely with its volunteers to plan and organise our Technical Group Meeting events for the autumn (check out our events page). Our Branches are also currently working on a programme for online talks for Members starting in September. In addition to this, The Welding Institute is also preparing for more volunteer training workshops.

We would like to welcome Members to share any ideas on how we could make the best use of these new technologies to support and promote the work of The Welding Institute.