Women of Steel - Forging New Opportunities: Introduction to Welding Program

CWB Welding Foundation recently announced the Women Of Steel - Forging New Opportunities: Introduction to Welding Program (IWP) which delivered an overview of the welding profession to 72 participants through a 30 hour, one week program. This was launched at six post-secondary institutions across Canada and developed specifically for women across geographic and demographic sectors. This program encourages the participants to explore careers in welding, gain valuable hands on experience and enables them to launch further investigation into educational and work opportunities. This will also allow them to develop the skills needed to find and keep good, well-paying jobs in the trade and labour market across Canada.

Each participant completes a 30 hour course that covers an introduction to the welding trade CWBI Acorn Health and Safety, basic theory of Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), and welding with the SMAW process. At the conclusion of the program, participants will be tested to obtain CWB Welder Qualification in a fillet weld, flat position. This is the first step which enables graduates to enter the workforce.

Introduction to Welding Program locations included Edmonton, Alta., Tiverton, Ont., Ottawa, Ont., Regina, Sask., Moncton, N.B., and Whitehorse, Yuk. throughout August and September 2019.

"As an instructor for the Introduction to Welding Program held in Edmonton, Alta., in August 2019, I watched a motivated group of women improve their welding skills in a very short period of time. The majority of the class had no prior tool experience, let alone welding experience, but were able to produce a sealable fillet weld by the end of the program week. I have had some third year apprentices with over 3,000 hours of work experience who were not able to produce the quality and sound metal these ladies have learned to do within the IWP course. It has created a platform where women can learn practical and theoretical welding skills that will set them up to advance in their next steps towards a career in the Canadian welding skilled trade."

- Wesley Schneider, Welding Instructor, 2019 Introduction to Welding Program, Alberta Pipe Trades Training College, Edmonton, Alta. Wesley's has worked for the Government of Alberta, as the Welding Consultant/Trades Officer and is now an Instructor at Alberta Pipe Trades Training College.

83% of the women at the Edmonton, Alta. IWP successfully passed their CWB Fillet Weld Test. We look forward to sharing the results from all of the IWPs, which you will be able to find on our website at www.cwbweldingfoundation.org/wos.

Contributed by: CWB Welding Foundation

Consulab has a long and soried history with Skills/Compétences Canada and SkillsUSA organizations in North America, as well as WorldSkills. Since 1999 when the 35th WorldSkills Competition was hosted in Montréal, Consulab has developed and supplied products at dozens of national and international level competitions. Consulab President, Kevin Boden, has been a strong supporter of the trades, and Skills specifically, for more than a decade. Consulab has volunteered products and resources in support of skills competitions, not because we benefit, but because as a company we feel it's the right thing to do.

Consulab has been a proud supporter of skills for over a decade.

As a company, our core beliefs and business practices are aligned with those of WorldSkills. Every product we develop and manufacture has outstanding educational value that has been determined by extensive research by our educational research team. From conception to final production our product line is carefully assembled and checked over by highly skilled tradespeople using purposeful educational outcomes tied to the products. Educators and students are the driving force behind every quality ConsuLab product built.