News

The Skillweld Competition 2020 is now open for registrations! 

What is The Skillweld Competition? 

This Skillweld Competition has been created to assess the skills of trainee welders in three manual fusion processes. They will be required to complete and produce four weld tests. 

The aim of the Skillweld Competition is to promote the development of a skilled workforce that will be equipped to meet the needs of the UK welding industry. It is an excellent opportunity for students and trainee welders to learn new skills and gain hands-on experience of the practical application of these welding processes.

The main objectives of the Skillweld Competition are:

To help trainee welders develop their welding skills in a competitive and pressurised environment 

• To encourage trainee welders to be inspired about their future careers in welding
• To test trainee welders’ knowledge and skills against a set criteria
• To encourage employers/training providers to reflect on their own apprenticeship schemes and training programmes 

Why should employers/training providers get involved?

Through allowing your employees/learners to compete in the Skillweld Competition, you are enhancing their experience and knowledge within welding and therefore also investing in the future of industry. 

Closing date for competition entries is 27th March, 2020.

To find out more about the Skillweld Competition, click here!

Click here to enter!

The Welding Institute is proud to support apprenticeships and their ability to develop capable individuals into having successful careers within the engineering industry.

What is National Apprenticeship Week?

National Apprenticeship Week is an annual week where apprenticeships and apprentices are celebrated and recognised throughout England. It looks at the successes and inspirational stories of apprentices and enables employers to promote the benefits of employing apprentices.

Our Role:

As one of the members of a number of ‘Trailblazer Employer Groups,’ The Welding Institute is able to encourage the current and future development of trailblazer standards including the:

• Pipe Welder Apprenticeship Standard 
• Plate Welder Apprenticeship Standard
• The Nuclear Welder Inspection Technician Standard

The Importance of Apprenticeships:

Apprenticeships are beneficial to both the apprentice and the employer. They are an excellent opportunity for apprentices to get into a career that they are interested in whilst gaining official qualifications (which will later help them progress once their apprenticeship has been completed). 

At the same time apprenticeships allow employers to gain a dedicated employee who will be gaining industry knowledge and qualifications at the same time, which in turn will be utilised within their work. 

It is vital that we encourage individuals to pursue a career in engineering due to the need and demand to fill future engineering jobs. Engineers play an incredibly important role within society, and The Welding Institute are dedicated to inspiring people to take on this career path. The Welding Institute’s Younger Member Network is dedicated to representing the interests of younger members, and developing the next generation of engineers. Members of the network promote the importance Professional Registration and Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Members who are also STEM Ambassadors participate in STEM outreach activities at primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities. 

AWFTE and The Welding Institute Joint Forum - Technical Challenges and Innovations in Welding Engineering 

The Welding Institute’s Southern Branch and AWFTE will be jointly hosting a forum focusing on the ‘Technical Challenges and Innovations in Welding Engineering.’ The event will be hosted by Portsmouth University on 13 March, 2020. It will cover topics including marine engineering, materials welder training and education in Southern England.

The day will include technical presentations and talks from industry experts, discussing new and existing applications, including current research projects. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to put questions to an expert panel. Attendance of this event is an excellent opportunity for those in the education and employment sectors with an interest in training and developing their career within the welding engineering industry.  

Who Should Attend?

• Lecturers, teachers and trainers engaged in welding engineering
• Employers with an interest in workforce development
• Ambassadors for industry and education

Benefits of Attendance:

• Gaining knowledge and experience from leading industry experts
• Networking with industry experts and personnel within the field
• Learning about new innovations and solutions
• The opportunity to ask industry experts questions that you may have
• Attending the event qualifies you to gain CPD points

Welding and Repair of High Temperature Plant

This Joining Processes Technical Group Meeting (TGM) event will be hosted at the Granta Centre (Great Abington, Cambridge) on March 18, 2020. The focus of the event will be based on the Welding and Repair of High Temperature Steels, looking in detail at the processes involved with this welding technique.

Why is the Welding and Repair of High Temperature Plants important?

Industry led objectives to produce life-extension techniques for structures are becoming increasingly prevalent due to the costs and economic impacts of ageing power generation and process plants. It is important for you as a welding engineer, production manager, designer or a personnel associated with the repair of creep resistant steels to keep your knowledge up to date with industry standards and practices.

The main topics that will be covered in the Technical Group Meeting include:

• Cladding of pressure vessels
• The welding and weld repair of creep resistant steels
• Welding repair of high temperature plants
• Additive manufacture of high alloy components
• Orbital welding for repair and replacement
• Trailblazer welder apprenticeship standards

Why should you attend?

• Technical Group Meetings are one of The Institute’s Membership Benefits therefore allowing Members to attend this event at a discounted price
• Attendance enables you to gain CPD points 
• It is an opportunity to network
• It also allows you to develop and further your knowledge of this joining process

To find out more about Membership of The Welding Institute please view our Membership Page and see how we can support your career and development.

The Welding Institute and Armourers and Brasiers will be jointly presenting the annual Armourers and Brasiers’ Awards on 14 February, 2020. The awards are in recognition of the continued education and research within the materials science and metallurgy sector.

Award Categories:

Final Year PhD Student - £1000 prize: The winning student will be a final year PhD student, with a significant quantity and quality of published papers that show evidence of novelty of work and the communication of science as part of a transition to independence.

MSc Student - 

£750 prize: This prize will be awarded to the student who has performed consistently overall in the module section of courses offered in any one year. The winner will have shown academic and personal promise during their academic studies.

BEng/BSc Student - 

£750 prize: The winner will have demonstrated excellent examination results at undergraduate level, including a high mark and commendation in a prescribed project report.

STEM Ambassador of the Year - 

£500 prize: This award recognises significant voluntary contribution to the STEM Ambassador Programme in the field of materials joining and structural integrity.

NSIRC Travel Awards – 

Travel grants of £500 - £1000 to assist with the travel and subsistence costs associated with attendance at relevant international conferences.

Award nominations close on the 14 February, 2020.

Click here to make your nominations.

The Welding Institute’s, Northumbria Branch is hosting an Awards ceremony for the Welding Student of the Year Award at their Annual Dinner on the 31st January, 2020, at Civic Centre, Newcastle. 

Be sure to make your nominations for an outstanding candidate who fills The Welding Institute Northumbria Branch’s following criteria:

• Has attended a recent course of training and/or education in the past academic year (2018/19) involving welding technology
• Has achieved consistently good results throughout the course (please ensure that you provide evidence of a recent college report, training review or performance review)
• Is a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual
• Must be aware of their potential career pathways in the welding industry
• Could be a role model for younger people entering the profession

Please provide your nomination by January 9 2020 along with a written statement explaining why your nomination deserves this award. 

Please email your nomination to keith.temperley@btinternet.com 

Becoming a Member of The Welding Institute

John Wintle became a Member of The Welding Institute as a Fellow in 2012. At TWI John is a Technology Fellow and Consultant Engineer, specialising in Integrity Management of welded structures. He is also a Visiting Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde since 2013. 

Despite not being a qualified welder, John chose to apply to become a Member of The Welding Institute because he wanted his peers and colleagues to recognise his experience and competences relating to welding technologies and professional standards. John’s decision to become a Member of the Institute was also in support of the work of professional engineering institutions, through CPD and mentoring, as natural progression for a senior TWI engineer.

Benefits of being a Member

With regards to the benefits of becoming a Member of The Welding Institute, John highlighted that being a Member provides you with a personal professional identity that is separate from any employment. It becomes a permanent form of recognition for you as an individual. Being a Member of a professional body encourages you to view your potential and growth beyond just the company for which you work, and he put his own successful career down, in part, to this.

John believes that this form of recognition has aided his career through it setting professional standards for competence, ethics and integrity within his work and personal behaviour. Membership of a professional Institute has allowed him to have a wider perspective on the world and an appreciation of related disciplines. It has enabled him to network with other professionals at Meetings of different Welding Institute Technical Groups (TGMs), and make contacts with people who he would possibly not have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

John mentioned his CPD record and how, through attending TGMs and other membership events, he gained a platform to develop and increase his profile and reputation in the engineering community, which have then led to new career opportunities and new projects. He said that he uses his professional membership and CPD record both personally to calibrate his work and achievements, and also professionally to show others (clients included) his level of experience and competence.

Involvement with The Welding Institute

John’s involvement as a Member of the Welding Institute also includes his support through the volunteer work that he does. He has given presentations at Technical Group Meetings discussing the topics that are most relevant to industry. He also chairs student seminars for the Young Members’ Committee. His main motivation for the volunteer work he does is the satisfaction that he gains through helping influence a younger generation of engineers to aspire towards professional standards by mentoring individuals at the early stages of their careers. This is furthered by his role as a Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde, where John goes once a month delivering lectures to students, supervising PhDs and assisting the academics in developing new courses. 

Becoming and practising as an Engineer

John studied physics at the University of Oxford and had no intention of becoming an engineer. He later discovered that his interest in functionality, simplicity and fixing things would steer his career development into becoming an engineer. He originally worked as a developer of engineering modelling software in a manufacturing company and became involved in a project investigating the reasons for the cracking of disc brake-pads. After helping to solve the problem, John did research at Loughborough University on flexural effects in drum brakes for which he was awarded an MSc.

Following this John pursued a career in engineering, first within the nuclear industry and then at TWI, for the direct impact that his technical knowledge and professional skills could have on people’s lives and business affairs. Among John’s engineering achievements were contributions to ageing and life extension of Magnox nuclear reactors, and the delivery within an international network of a large scale spinning cylinder test demonstrating the integrity of nuclear reactor pressure vessels.

He then worked at TWI on risk based inspection and ageing of pressure equipment in the nuclear and oil and gas sectors, and life extension of offshore installations. He was a long standing member of the Pressure Systems Group of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and his committed contribution to the pressure equipment community was recognised by being awarded the 2018 Donald Julius Groen Prize in 2018 by the Institution. 

When asked about the project that has made him most proud during his career, John referenced the ‘Health and Safety Executive’s Research Report 509 – Plant Ageing: Management of Equipment Containing Hazardous Fluids and Pressure (2006).’ The report can be said to have changed industry’s attitude towards degrading equipment, and encouraging a shift from the culture of finding a problem and fixing it to predicting problems and thereby preventing them from happening. He described his satisfaction when he finds that his report is still being referenced and used today.

Advice to the next generation

John finished by offering some advice to the next generation of engineers, by saying they should try to remain true to themselves throughout their career. He said to see yourself as a professional so that you can gain the confidence to take on problems and speak when others may feel unable to do. Being a Member of a professional engineering body such as The Welding Institute is a vital element. 

The Welding Institute’s North Western Branch hosted its 2019 Annual Dinner. As part of the evening, more money was raised for the GEM Appeal charity contributing to the total of £82,569.48 raised for various charities over a number of years.

The GEM Appeal charity was given the Queens Award for voluntary service. The Queens Award for voluntary service is the highest award a volunteer group can receive and is a prestigious form of recognition for the outstanding work the volunteer group has done for their community with regards to social, economic or environmental services. The award is equivalent to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). 

The GEM Appeal is a charity founded in 1994 by Karen Johnson. It was initially founded to raise funds for the Willink Unit and the Royal Manchester Children’s hospital to fund research into rare genetic disorders and inborn errors of metabolism. The fundraising for The GEM Appeal is totally voluntary and the charity receives no government or lottery funding. The Welding Institute is delighted to support the charity and recognise the amazing work that it does. 

The Welding Institute is very proud to be able to contribute to such an amazing charity.

The Welding Institute would like to congratulate the finalists and medal winners of the WorldSkills UK National finals at the NEC. 

The 2019 WorldSkills was an outstanding success, with over 88,000 students attending the event, taking the opportunity to meet and interact with different businesses, career guidance stands and industry experts. The Welding Institute is also proud to be able to support SkillsWeld to promote careers in welding and engineering and showing young people the real impact that they can have on society through their work.

The Institute would like to commend the medal winners of the Construction MetalWork and Welding competitions for their success in getting to the finals and to acknowledge all the help and support given by their colleges and employers.

Construction MetalWork:

• Joe Mason (Gold), Dudley College, West Midlands 
• Kieran McShane (Silver), Burnley College, North West 
• Balveen Nota (Bronze), Dudley College, West Midlands 
• Sam Carter (Bronze), Burnley College, North West 
• Aydan Whatling (Highly Commended), Pembrokeshire College, Wales

Welding:

• Curtis Rees (Gold), NPTC Group, Wales 
• Morgan Roberts (Silver), Lakes College, West Cumbria, North West 
• David Duncan (Bronze), Coleg Cambria, Wales 
• Danny Hills (Highly Commended), Lakes College, West Cumbria, North West  

The WorldSkills competition is an excellent opportunity for young people to get into careers that inspire them through enabling them to demonstrate their skills in a new environment. One of the most significant opportunities of this competition is the reality that successful competitors may have the chance to attend the 2021 international final in Shanghai.

We hope a new generation of engineers are inspired to look to engineering as a career.

This article is honouring Lord John Fleetwood Baker, who was the first ever winner of the Outstanding Contribution Award. He was a civil engineer who is arguably responsible for the lives of many today through the work that he carried out during his engineering career. 

One of the main projects that Lord John Baker is commemorated for was his invention of the Morrison Shelter, produced and introduced in March 1941. 

Lord John Baker used the properties of steel to demonstrate that plastic deformation absorbs more energy than elastic deformation. He put his findings to use by constructing a shelter to protect individuals from building collapse during air raids in the Second World War.

The shelter was constructed from materials that were available at the time, due to the demand for materials for the war effort, which were mainly steel and wood. It was constructed to fit a family of up to three people. 

As a civil engineer, Lord John Baker considered the practicality of the shelter as well as its safety. This involved making the shelter multipurpose so that it could fit into small city houses. The shelter doubled as a dining room table with the sides of the structure folding under, making it a normal item of furniture in people’s homes. The structure became the preferred form of protection due to it being within the comfort of peoples’ own homes.

The structure proved to be considerably successful when only three out of 136 people occupying Morrison Shelters died during a bombing raid affecting 44 houses. The three casualties were from the building directly hit by the bomb, therefore supporting Lord Baker’s argument that the structures could survive most bomb related impacts except a direct hit. 

The second life achievement that The Institute commends Lord Baker for is for his contribution towards the training of engineers. 

Lord Baker initially influenced the way engineering was taught by introducing ‘The Advanced Course in Production Methods and Management,’ formerly known as the Reddaway Scheme.

The course was considered unconventional by most but offered a true insight into the engineering industry. Those enrolled needed to be sponsored by a company and there were no formal exams or qualifications. The course was 52 weeks long and students gained a real hands on experience of the engineering industry, spending most of their time onsite in factories, where they were expected to report any engineering problems they discovered to the factory management. 

Lord John Baker won the outstanding personal contribution award due to the number of lives he potentially saved through his work and The Institute hopes that this inspires others to apply for the award.

Click here to apply for the Outstanding Contribution Award.