Introduction
Welding is the most widely applied manufacturing process in the construction of metal structures and in repair/installation of tubing/pipefitting systems. To ensure value for money and public safety, welding processes and activities must be controlled through a nationally coordinated programme for training and certification of welding professionals. Industries that use welding to manufacture their products are the driving force of a modern economy. They are largely responsible for the infrastructure, capital goods, and commercial products that sustain a relatively high standard of living for billions of people across the world. It is, therefore, critical to industrialisation globally.
Welding Industry in Ghana
The welding industry in Ghana is burdened with challenges such as nonregulation and organisation of the education, training, qualification, and certification of welding personnel in accordance with internationally acceptable standards, making the industry uncontrolled, uncoordinated, and underdeveloped. There are educational institutions in Ghana that provide welding training, however, the training does not qualify them for international professional certification. In fact, there is also no professional body with the mandate to champion the cause and interest of the welding profession to internationally acceptable levels. Even where Ghanaian welders have the same competence as their expatriate counterparts, compensation levels are different leading to demotivation. There is a National Technical and Vocational Education and Training Qualifications Framework (NTVETQF) for qualification and certification of welding personnel, but it is not linked with international framework, thus the industry is flooded with expatriates.
The nation has over the years lost huge revenues due to non-availability of internationally certified welders in the country though there are thousands (1000s) of Ghanaian welders available. With the current government of Ghana’s agenda for industrialisation, there is the urgent need to develop the critical skills of Ghanaian welders to benefit from this and subsequent projects enabling the State to make huge cost savings and directly support the local welding industry with employability. This has created the need for the establishment of the Ghana Welding Bureau (GWB), with the mandate to promote the development of welding in Ghana to international standards, ensure Ghana’s membership with international welding professional bodies to advance the science, technology and application of welding and its allied processes.
For this to materialise, an assessment team was tasked by the Petroleum Commission to assess the availability and capacity of existing welding institutions in Ghana. Based on the assessments conducted in September 2020 in the existing welding training institutions, previous research and the work of the Petroleum Commission in the area of Local Content and Localisation, a number of challenges were identified:
Institutional challenges regarding training and capacity building of welders in Ghana:
- Inadequate qualified and certified welding professionals;
- Unstructured and uncoordinated training activities in the informal sector;
- Lack of professionally certified trainers, instructors and assessors;
- Lack of destructive and non-destructive testing facilities;
- No internationally recognised and approved welding institutions for
- professional certification of welders;
- Inadequate infrastructural capacity of existing welding training institutions;
- Minimal internship/apprenticeship opportunities;
- Lack of continuous professional development programmes and activities;
- Minimal training programme in welding institutions; and
- Lack of health, safety and environment systems.
Cost, funding and sustainability of Ghana welding industry in Ghana:
- Limited resources for welding institutions;
- High cost of consumables for training and lack of funding resulting in
- sustainability challenges;
- Unavailability of consumables for welding activities;
- Non-existence of welding simulators for training and;
- Lack of scholarships for training.
Lack of institutional collaboration, coordination, and cooperation with
- Industry and training institutions;
- Other professional bodies; and
- Informal welding trade associations.
Based on the above findings, a team of experts from academia, industry and the Petroleum Commission was tasked to develop a Policy for the establishment of the Ghana Welding Bureau through a stakeholder’s consultative assembly at the Petroleum Commission. After the 12 -day deliberation, the team came up with a policy on the establishment of the Ghana Institution of Welding to facilitate capacity building to meet the demands of the welding industry especially in the oil and gas, nuclear and other allied industries.
The Birth of GWB
Thus, GWB was born at the backdrop of the above challenges, but the story did not end there. Two major activities were to take place.These were, Registration of GWB with Registrar General’s Department to give a legal and administrative mandate of GWB; and Registration of GWB with International Institution of Welding (IIW). This is to ensure among other things, capacity building in welding and other related joining professions in Ghana, to an international standard under the IIW Qualification System, to reduce the cost of training welders overseas.
The GWB was therefore registered with the Registrar General Department in Ghana through incorporation under the companies act 2019 Act 992 as a company limited by guarantee on 4 November 2020.
Then the issue of applying to the International Institute Welding became the focus of the GWB committee. We realized that the process of applying to become a member of IIW was more complex than we thought, so a committee from all stakeholders was formed to ensure that GWB becomes a member with IIW in the shorted possible time. The Committee sat for three days to study all the requirement of IIW and to gather all the documentation needed for the application. Application was submitted to IIW in Italy in December 2020, and it took almost 6 months back and forth communication and request for documents before Ghana finally acquired the membership. GWB was officially admitted as a responsible member society with the IIW. The official announcement was made on 7th July 2021, at the IIW 2021 Annual Online General Assembly and International Conference in Italy. All the stakeholders were ecstatic to watch and witness the historic ushering of Ghana into the international welding fraternity. GWB membership presents a number of opportunities and benefits for Ghana to explore including Ghana implementing IIW welder qualification system.
IIW has suggested that, if Ghana intends to implement the IIW Qualification System for personnel in the field of welding technology in Ghana under the responsibility of GWB, there may be several options to choose from such as:
i. To apply to the International Authorisation Board (IAB) of the IIW to become an Authorised Nominated Body (ANB);
ii. To become an Authorised Training Body (ATB) where, an ANB mentors and supervises the training of welders in Ghana for a period while building capacity locally till Ghana is ready to a full-fledged ANB status; or a combination of (i) and (ii).
For GWB to achieve any of these (ANB or ATB), it must go through complex application and documentation processes under stringent approval regimes. The technical requirements and application costs are sometimes prohibitive. The route to get to the destination is also complex. The CEO of the Petroleum, under whose leadership the GWB was formed, seeing the complexity involved in acquiring an ANB status, has currently set up a thirteen(13) member committee to explore, investigate, and develop a road map with associated recommendations on how this will be achieved.
This is the end of the middle of the road and just halfway of achieving our final objective: to be able to train Ghanaian welders in Ghana to acquire IIW international diplomas in welding such as, International Welder (IW), International Welder Practitioner (IWP), International Welder Specialist (IWS), International Welder Inspector (IWI), International Welder Technologist (IWT), International Welder Engineer (IWE).
The GWB-ANB Committee would complete its work by 30 September 2021