Welding technology is the most critical metal working technology for the industrial sectors that are required to assure long-term reliability , such as the construction of buildings, bridges, and chemical plants, and the production of ships ,vehicles ,and other transportation equipment.

The industries which has demand for welders includes: automotive industry, heavy metal fabrication, offshore platforms, chemical processing, wind power, structural fabrication, general fabrication, maintenance and repair, cross country pipeline, shipbuilding, LNG, thermal energy and railways.

Future outlook of welders’ demand

The per capita consumption for finished steel products was estimated to be 59.4 kg in India during year 2014. This is very low when compared to other developing countries like China - 510.0 kg; Russia - 302.8 kg; Brazil - 121.9 kg and South Africa - 97.5 kg.

The low per capita consumption indicates significant growth potential of steel consumption in the country. The sustainable level of per capita consumption of steel is about 300 kg per capita per year in a developed economy. For example per capita consumption of steel in developed economy are - European Union - 300.2 kg; United States - 274.2 kg.

When a country is in infrastructure mode, the consumption goes up even upto 1000 kg, just like the case of China (510 kg). The per capita consumption of steel in India would move from the level of 59 kg in 2014 to 175 kg in 2025-26. Considering the fact that the population of India is projected to grow to 1.43 billion that year, the steel consumption in 2025-26 is likely to be around 250 million MT.

The welding industry faces a pressing challenge in the growing lack of skilled welding operators. Many manufacturing operations struggle with every day as they work to keep their operations competitive. There are 2 ways to address the welding operator shortage:

• Increase the work force by training more operators.
• Increase productivity with existing welding operators.

Effort of PWSI to upgrade the skill level

• Panasonic Welding Systems India(PSWI) organises several training programs to upgrade welding work force in India with the following purpose –
• Train the welding work force about best practices in welding to reduce re-work and increase speed of production.
• Train the welding work force on latest technology in welding machines which support them to achieve best weld output.
• Train the welding work force to operate welding robots with multiple software options in case of welding automation.

PWSI organiSes above training programs in line with idea of ‘Make in India’. India is going to be a manufacturing hub and should be able to export the products to other countries. And to achieve this , Indian industry should produce products of global standard and for which skill level of the work force has to be upgraded to international standard with latest technological tools to produce products with best quality and with minimum Cost per Component (CPC).

There are many training programs which are organiSed by PWSI on continual basis , Some of the national and international levels programs are as following:

National level training programs in Year 2015-16

JICA Training programs: JICA training programs were conducted at 4 locations in India – Gurgaon(July 9,2015), Hyderabad(Sept 24, 2015), Ahmedabad(Nov 25,2015) and Chennai (May 11,2016)

Above training programs were financially supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan. These were organised by PWSI with support of Confederation of Indian Industry(CII); Kansai Economic Federation (Kankeiren), Japan; Japan Welding Research Institute(JWRI)-Osaka University, Japan; Japan Welding Engineering Society(JWES), Japan; Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), India.

National level training programs in Year 2017

AOTS (formerly HIDA) Training programs: AOTS training programs were conducted at 3 locations in India – Gurgaon(Aug 2-3,2017), Bengaluru(Aug 23-24 ,2017) and Pune(Nov 7-8,2017)

Above training programs were financially supported by Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI), Japan and executed in India by The Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS), Japan with support of Confederation of Indian Industry(CII); Kansai Economic Federation (Kankeiren), Japan; Japan Welding Research Institute (JWRI)-Osaka University, Japan; Japan Welding Engineering Society (JWES), Japan whereas Panasonic Welding Systems India (PWSI) was an industry partner.