New Challenges to Overcome
One of the fastest growing career fields today is the welding industry. Welders play a crucial part to the construction of buildings, pipelines and other infrastructures needs. They are also required to adapt as this industry faces new challenges and updated standards.
The recession of 2008 slowed the need for welders a bit but some manufactures said it was actually a good thing.
In a recent article appearing in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, a Green Bay manufacture said he was actually glad the recession happened because it slowed down the amount of work his welding company was being asked to do. With a shortage of experienced welders the recession briefly slowed down the need for construction, but with the economy slowly on its way to a recovery the lack of experienced welders is once again becoming a problem across the country that has the industry scrambling to find experienced and trained welders.
"If we don't plan for the future, we aren't going to have one," Kurt Bauer, president and CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in the same article. "Without a skilled workforce, we can say goodbye to those jobs."
Some say there is a crisis in the welding industry because there are not enough skilled workers to meet the growing demand for new building construction. The economy continues to face some challenges, but a full recovery will eventually take place, and when it does manufactures will be scrambling to meet the demand.
Joseph McNally is a professional welder in Oklahoma and he said his company is scrambling to find new workers.
“I know we are looking to get ready for what people think will be a building boom,” McNally said. “But even today there are not enough people to fill the jobs we have open, at least not enough people with the right kind of training.”
At the Advanced Career Institute students are being prepared to fill those vacant positions in the welding industry by learning the skills and procedures needed to obtain American Welding Society performance certifications.
“The worker with the right kind of training and experience could probably have no problem finding a job, even in today’s economy,” McNally. “But eventually things are going to get even better and this (industry) is going to have even more positions to fill.”
Welders are required to understand how to properly use equipment but there is also a need for welders than can correctly read blue prints and site plans, especially as the regulations related to building practices change to become more cost effective and environmentally sound. The Advanced Career Institute trains its students to enter the field with the knowledge to succeed and be in high demand from welding companies across the nation.