Welding courses and training

Why AWI does not run the courses

A body cannot credibly certify the output of its own training. If the same organisation teaches you, examines you and certifies you, the certificate is worth whatever that organisation says it is worth.

So the jobs are split. TAFE institutes and other training providers deliver the training and run the examinations, working from units in the national training packages. AWI sets the scheme requirements, approves the training providers, assesses the evidence and issues the certificate. The training provider cannot issue an AWI certificate and AWI does not sell you the course.

The two training paths

Welder certification training

For experienced welders going after AS 1796 certification. Two components, and both are required:

• Theory. One unit, common to every certificate category, taken once. It covers interpretation of plans and specifications, validation of welding procedures, work health and safety, standards and specifications, organisation of non-destructive testing procedures, and project management.
• Practical. A minimum of 40 hours of practical training in the certificate category you are pursuing.

Then a theory examination, once, and a practical examination for each certificate category you want. Full welder certification requirements.

Welding supervision training

Theory, and it is the substantial part: welding process technology, welding metallurgy, and weld testing and inspection. Examined in writing, with a separate examination for each welding process the certification covers. Supervisor certification.

Finding a provider

Training is delivered by AWI approved training providers. AWI holds strategic relationships with several of them, including an international welding training provider, to make training available to members. Those relationships are about access to training, not about who issues the certificate: that stays with AWI.

Two things to check before you enrol anywhere:

1. Ask whether the training provider is AWI approved for the certificate category you want. Not for welding generally. For the category. A training provider can be excellent and still not deliver the category you need.
2. Ask what you hold at the end. A statement of attainment for a unit, a practical examination result, or a certificate of attendance are three different things and only two of them are any use in a certification application. The evidence list is the test.

AWI does not publish the provider list yet. Ask AWI which approved provider covers the category you want and where they are, rather than working it out from advertising. Contact AWI.

Short courses, and what they are not

Plenty of short welding courses are sold in Australia and most of them are honestly described. Some are not, so the test is worth knowing.

A short course that ends in a certificate of attendance has taught you something and qualified you for nothing. That is fine when the purpose is to learn a process, to try the trade, or to weld on your own projects. It is not fine when it was sold as a welding ticket, because a welding ticket is a certificate against a standard, issued after an examination, and entered on a register. What a welding ticket actually is.

Ask one question before paying: at the end of this, what document do I hold, and who can verify it? If the answer is nobody, adjust your expectations rather than your enrolment.

How it gets delivered

Theory can be delivered online. Practical welding cannot, and no amount of platform will change that. Expect a blend: theory at your own pace, practical hours in a training workshop, and examinations supervised in person.

How that blend is arranged is the provider’s decision, not AWI’s. AWI does not deliver courses and runs no learning platform, so there is nothing to enrol in here. The links on this page go to the scheme requirements, which is what you need before you choose a provider.

If you are training a workforce

Two things save real money for a fabricator putting several people through certification.

First, sequence the theory. It is the long pole, it is common across supervision and inspection, and it can be done while production continues.

Second, corporate membership puts every named person on the member assessment rate, which is where the arithmetic changes when you are certifying more than one or two people.