New-Look Young Welder Competition Launched by SAIW

24 April 2010

“We have made some fundamental changes this year,” says SAIW executive director,” Jim Guild. “While the overall winner must have entered all three categories – carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium – we are allowing entries for one category only. This will broaden the participation in this important competition.

Also, the winner will not, as in the past, automatically be sent to the WordSkills competition but will have to reach a minimum standard in the months after the local competition. In this regard we urge all employers to do whatever they can to facilitate the training of their candidate should he/she win,” says Guild.

All young welders in South Africa, who will not be more than 22 years of age on December 31, 2011, are invited to enter the competition, the first round of which will consist of an assessment of entrants in the different regions.

Once the finalists have been selected, they will each receive a copy of blueprints of the exercises that will have to be carried out. They will have the opportunity to practice and perfect these before the four-day finals to be held in Johannesburg from 4th-8th October 2010 at the Institute’s welding school.

The competition will be judged by a panel of industry experts and the winner, if he/she attains the required standard, will attend the 41st WorldSkills Competition to be held in London in October 2011.

“Entrants will have to show that they have mastered four welding processes – shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW) and flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) – across the three materials or in their chosen material,” says Guild.

Entries close August 20th 2010

For more information please contact: Liz Berry on 084 446 0629 (Western Cape); Ian Elsdon-Dew on 031 201 4850 (KZN); Etienne Nell or Frans Vorster on 011 298 2100 (Gauteng and other regions)