Jim’s Cover Pass: Will there ever be a standard welding instructional curriculum?

Q: I have been a college welding instructor for the past five years. After reviewing several textbooks and programs, I am curious why no standard welding curriculum is available for all welding instruction programs. Why is that?

A: This is an area that I have been involved with for several years. The AWS SENSE program was the first attempt at developing learning competencies for welding curriculums, and it has been undergoing some improvements over the last few years.

Additionally, the National Center for Welding Education and Training (WELD-ED) group of educational institutions developed a welding technician national core curriculum with designated student learning outcomes in 2011 that is one of the best models I have worked with. Most welding equipment manufacturers also have developed basic welding instructional courses for schools to use. And almost every textbook published follows a curriculum path.

The basic idea of training for SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, FCAW, and the various cutting processes, along with a knowledge of print reading, seems easy enough. However, the variations in these processes in different industrial and regional settings have led to differing opinions on how to teach these processes.

The reality is, if you ask five competent welding instructors the best way to approach instruction, you will get five different answers. Every instructor’s teaching method stems from their own background and how they were taught. Welding textbooks that serve as guides for curriculum are too often used as the only training source.

We continue to develop and refine welding educational outcomes, increase the use of various media and technologies, and give instruction based on future outcomes instead of how the instructor was taught in the past. I believe these efforts will help in the development of more standardized curriculum in the near future.

Never stop learning, always embrace change, and continue to develop the next generation of welders.