Simplified welding education with Acorn

A screenshot from one of the Acorn modules.

With the often talked about skills gap hitting the trades hard, high schools and colleges across Canada are adding resources to welding programs and rejigging their programs to better serve industry. But establishing and maintaining that curriculum can be a challenge. The CWB Group is doing what it can to help them along, with both materials and specialist support.

The CWB Group is committed to growing and sustaining the welding industry in Canada and abroad, and it is through the implementation of programs such as Acorn that we can ensure that students get access to the resources they need for success. Acorn is an initiative that provides educational resources at a national level for welding institutions. It can be best described as a flexible learning platform that can be adopted on its own or adjusted to fit within existing training initiatives.

Acorn is a system of educational resources related to welding and metal fabrication. Its content progresses students through theoretical and practical learning, from striking an arc and basic understanding of power sources to advanced metallurgy knowledge and practical inspection techniques. What makes the program unique is that the content can be delivered through our online portal while students engage with 3D models and downloadable material. Plus, the curriculum can be adapted to fit specific instructors, schools, businesses, and learners that want to increase their knowledge in welding and metal fabrication. Each student has a different learning style; the program has been designed to take this into consideration.

To help each institution transition smoothly, an Acorn integration specialist is assigned to promote the capabilities of the program. To explain the program better, specialists demonstrate how the content can increase student competency in the classroom and outline its many uses. But beyond that, they listen to what the users need and what they want from their educational curriculum. From that discussion the specialists come up with appropriate strategies to meet these needs.

A program like Acorn lends flexibility to how educational material can be delivered, and because a team of developers supports all our content, adoption of Acorn limits the need for a college or province to revise and update its content continually. Users can pick the material and customize it to meet the needs of their program. The best part about the program is that the CWB Group offers the program on a 30-day trial, allowing institutions to roll up their sleeves and compare Acorn to their existing content. The team is confident that Acorn meets the requirements of these institutions, and if it doesn’t, it allows them to identify the gaps in the program and work on improving and further developing the content.

Trent Konrad is an Acorn integration specialist at the CWB Group. For more information on CWBi Acorn, contact him at trent.konrad@cwbgroup.org or visit www.cwbgroup.org/acorn.