Welding School Centers of Excellence
Working with GFP International, its sister organization, and the American Welding Society, African Skills and Development Group has assembled a team of globally recognized experts, engineers and project managers to execute a broad program of welding school modernizations across Africa. This page describes the need, the gap, and the solutions to address the large gap between the needs for industrial welders, and the current state of welding training in Africa.
The Need
As reported by research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, Africa is the beginning of an $800 billion USD upstream oil and gas investment cycle that will see “liquified natural gas (LNG) emerge as a major investment theme alongside traditional deepwater oil.” Currently, the continent’s workforce does not have the skills necessary to meet the demand of these investments.
In addition to the energy boom, the race is on for African critical minerals. Africa contains large mineral and mining resources including:
- 30% of the total world resource reserves.
- 90% of the world’s chromium and platinum reserves.
- 65% of the world’s uranium reserves.
- 65% of the world’s arable land.
- 60% of the world’s cobalt reserves.
- 40% of the world’s gold reserves.
- 33% of the world’s diamond reserves.
Modern mining requires strong welding, machining, and fabrication skills to maintain a modern mining equipment fleet.
The Gap
As a general finding, East African welding schools fail to produce welders to the standards required for industrialization of energy, manufacturing, farming, mining and other sectors. This finding is based on an inspection of 23 representative welding schools in East Africa conducted by the GFP Internationals’ technical team.
This finding is also supported by recent reports in the media, and anecdotal reports from the field. A recent headline in the Citizen digital read:
This article concluded that only about 5% of candidates had the skills needed to gain employment in a Qatar job recruitment effort in Kenya. We found no substantial difference between the quality of welding schools across East Africa that we inspected.
The welding gap poses a major risk to industrial project development. In 2023, a major international energy company was assembling a workforce to build a $20 billion energy project that required skilled and certified welders. According to reports, only about 2% of 300 local welders did not meet the skill requirements for the project.
In January 2023, GFP International’s technical team dined with ten members of the Tanzanian Association of Welders. Each of these men had between 15 and 25 years’ experience in the ornamental welding field in Tanzania, and each had the same sad story. They traveled to Uganda to test for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project, and each failed to meet the skill standards to work on that project.
There is a stark difference between the ornamental welding skills taught in existing welding schools and those skills needed for industrial development, manufacturing, steel fabrication and other industries.
Curriculum Gap Between Ornamental and Industrial Welding Training
As noted in the above figure, the typical curriculum at the welding schools visited consisted of 85% welding theory and 15% actual skill development. (As measured by time spent) This contrasts with a school that teaches industrial certifiable welding skills in which students spend about 85% of their time in skill practice with actual materials, and only 15% on welding theory. As a consequence of this mismatch, the African schools visited had on average one welding machine for ten students, whereas a welding school that develops skills has at least one welding machine per student.
In addition to learning the skills of welding itself, a welding school of excellence also teaches basic fabrication skills with the use of some basic shop equipment.
Shop Floor Fabrication Skill Equipment
In a detailed assessment of welding schools visited, we found that they only had 18% (by value) of the shop floor equipment needed.
Naturally, adding more welding machines and shop fabrication equipment will require larger and more modern facilities. Below find a mass/area balance for a twenty-booth school, and a detailed schematic for a sixty-booth school.
Mass Area Diagram for a Twenty Booth School
Schematic Diagram for a Sixty Booth School
Welding School Architectural Improvements
In addition to more space and modern equipment, we identified some of the common improvements that were found to be needed at schools visited by the Welding Advisory Team in January 2023.
Lighting Levels
Lighting levels seemed low in most of all the schools visited, although measurements were not taken to quantify this. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) has published recommendations for lumen requirements in various locations.
“Welding operations involving metals should be supported by 300 lux of maintained average illuminance. Welding orientation for workers may be conducted under 200-300 lux lighting conditions, while precision manual arc welding may be supplemented with 5,000-7,500 lux lighting levels.”[1]
Finishes
Most schools needed general maintenance of finishes with new wall paint and patching. Floors could be upgraded by shot blasting and re-finishing with epoxy finishes.
Ventilation and Booths
Standard practice in welding schools is to provide point extraction of welding fumes at each welding booth.
[1]https://www.ishn.com/articles/104700-lumen-recommendations-for-common-and-industrial workspaces#:~:text=Welding%20operations%20involving%20metals%20should,5%2C000%2D7%2C500%20lux%20lighting%20levels.
At the schools visited, there were either no ventilation systems, or the systems were not in working order.
Electrical
All schools we visited had inadequate electrical service and distribution to support a robust welding school situation with a booth and welding machine per student. A plan and cost estimate to improve the electrical supply and distribution will need to be drawn up at each school.
Vision for African Welding Industry
After presenting a vision to the 5th Tanzania Energy Congress, we continued our travels to Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda to meet with education leaders there including ministers, directors, trade school principals, trainers, and students. Everywhere we went, we found leaders who shared a concern about the burgeoning youth population entering the work force without the skills needed to participate in the new industrial economy. We encountered a newfound awareness that, while improvements have been made at the university level in these countries, the investment and attention to trade schools has been ignored for too long. For example, the Ministry of Education in Rwanda has intensified efforts to hit 60% targets of students leaving secondary schools to join Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) by 2024 with a launch of campaigns to sensitize youth and parents about the future of work.
The World Bank helped bring focus to this problem when on July 25-26, 2023, it sponsored the Africa Human Capital Heads of State Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Throughout the proceedings, leaders expressed a desire to re-focus on investment in trade school training.
The relatively small investment in human capital required to develop a welding and skilled trade talent pool pales compared to the risks posed by the skill shortage. We have analyzed programs, visited schools, and evaluated curricula and facilities. Through engagement with the Technical and Vocational Trade School Authorities, school headmasters, instructors, and students, we can confidently report that we have a population and leadership that are ready and eager to fill a role in providing the next generation of resource projects with skilled welding talent on the world stage. This is a once in a generation opportunity.
As noted on our photo history page, GFP International and African Skills and Development Group Ltd. confirmed the strong interest in rejuvenating the trade school training sector and joining to address the global welder shortage.
