Business of Welding: Skills shortage rethink

What we should be saying is that there are regional shortages and surpluses of welders.

Sometimes it can be hard to look past the current downturn that is impacting our industry, with all the bad news about layoffs out West and the delay in industry coming back on line in Central Canada, and the times can seem somewhat bleak. But I’ve found that although the economy has stalled on some fronts, talk around skills shortages in this industry has not.

At the recent CanWeld15 Conference in St. John’s, NL, a local “skills shortage” debate shifted its focus to the apparent “skills surplus” currently taking place on the island. Is there a surplus of skilled labour in Newfoundland? According to some, it would appear that there is.

Talking to local media, industry, and local politicians it would seem that the local schools do a great job generating tradespeople of the hammer wielding, wire stripping and sheet metal bashing persuasion.

So, if you are looking to build a wooden structure, the island is well stocked with the required material and people who know what to do with it. From their perspective this qualified, rightly, as a skilled labour surplus.

It would appear that welding was not factored in, although no one argues that welding is clearly a skilled trade.

We need to rethink the idea of skilled shortages, and how it is portrayed in the media. Is there a skilled trade shortage in Canada? I would say maybe, depending on where you are standing and what you are looking at.

If welding is not strongly associated with local building or industry needs, and not supported as an career option, it’s likely not going to be factored into any assumptions (or hard facts) relating to the number of “skilled workers” at a given time.

With this in mind, simply saying there’s a skills shortage is like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars—you might get the general lay of the land, but not much about what is actually on it.

What we should be saying is that there are regional shortages and surpluses of welders. However, and this is an important consideration— where surpluses do exist they will not be that way for long given the age of the average welder.

Without a course correction around regional training and welding promotion the compass will start to point towards an every increasing shortage.

It’s a simple numbers game: as those on the job move on, or retire, or move out of the area, there is no one training to replace them locally.

The key here is to take into account time. We’ve lost a lot of time, and that’s going to be reflected in the size of the available domestic labour pool each and every year starting in the next five to 10 years—regardless of where you start looking.

This is our problem to fix. So what can we do? We have two options: train our Canadian youth, or import foreign workers. Lets look at how we can support a Made in Canada solution.

Depending on where you look and when, there is (or is going to be) a shortage of welders, regardless of what’s happening in traditional welder-centric regions like Alberta.

It’s all about perspective: are there welders in Newfoundland? Absolutely, just like there are welders living and working in all provinces.

That said, is there is a focus on creating new welders in Newfoundland? I would say no, at least not in the same way other trades are promoted and taught.

For example, we were told that at the high school level there is only one high school that was set up to teach welding, but no classes had been taught for years.

The good news, as announced at CanWeld15, is that through the CWA Foundation this is immediately correctable. The Foundation, alongside the CWB Group and local industry partners, is proactively driving for change, as was reflected in the programs that were announced at CanWeld15 this year.

These programs will provide:

  • Funding for welding-related awareness at all levels across all provinces
  • Free access to Canada’s new national welding curriculum and assessment tools (in the form of CWBi Acorn)
  • Financial support for purchasing equipment
  • Access to local donations of  consumables and material

These programs will be freely available to any and all high schools in Canada that qualify.

Yet, funding and programs can only go so far. It’s people that need to help drive things forward. For example, Newfoundland and other provinces were the hosts of many Mind Over Metal welding camps this year, providing the next generation a first taste of welding in places where such opportunities would not otherwise exist.

You can help by pitching in, whether it’s joining the CWA, donating to the Foundation, or helping out at a camp or event. Everything you do helps improve the visibility of welding.

If you want to see just how much can be done, join us next year at the CanWeld16 Expo in Edmonton. You may be surprised at what others are doing to improve your industry and job prospects across the country.

Ian Campbell is director of marketing and new product development with CWB.