The maiden edition of the National welding competition hosted by Gyason Technoengineering Limited and Koforidua Technical University has ended.

The competition was under the theme "Joining Ghana's Prosperous Future through Welding".

The first part of the event was a webinar,  held a day before the main competition.

The Chief Executive Officer of Gyason Technoengineering Limited, Dr. Emmanuel Afrane Gyasi presented on the subject  "Introduction to modern welding technologies".

During the presentation, he assured participants that "We can join Ghana's prosperous future through welding if we keep abreast with modern welding technologies through education, training, qualification, and certification, and equipping Ghanaian companies to manufacture quality welded products that are marketable both locally and internationally, while taking control and advantage of the resources the nation has, and breaking barriers through innovation, job creation and entrepreneurship".

After the main National Welding Competition, four persons emerged winners and will represent Ghana at the International Welding Competitions in China and Germany in September this year.

About 13 welders from Technical Universities and TVET institutions participated in the final competition.

The competition was under the auspices of Gyason Technoengineering limited in collaboration with the Koforidua Technical University, the  Ghanaian Institute of Welding (GIW), among other partners.

Contestants were tested  in four welding processes: Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), and Oxy-Fuel Gas Welding (OFW).

Ing. Dr. Adu Gyamfi, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Koforidua Technical University, told Joy News that organisers ensured contestants adhere to best welding practices.

" We have welders from different technical universities who came and were screened and a few were qualified because of some criteria that were given. When it comes to welding, the best practices is about dealing with different metal plates because that's what we use in the industry so over here we do the standard welding practice and that involves different welding technologies", he explained.

Welders Applied Skills

The competition provided the platform for welders to apply their skills in testing conditions, identifies welding talents within our communities, creates a database of welders ready for employment, highlights the needs for welding education, training, qualification, and certification, addresses the necessity for reskilling and upskilling, and developing pathways and routes towards economic activities in welding for job creation and entrepreneurship.

The CEO of NABS group, an accredited international recruitment agency, Nana Kwabena Boadu said welding is one of the career paths that is well-paying and needs to be prioritised as a programme in schools.

"We've been recruiting welders over the past three years to big companies across the globe and when you look at what they offer I can tell you for a fact that it is one of the lucrative industry in terms of salary,in terms of renumeration and everything,I can tell you that it is one of the well-paid jobs currently in the world because when you look at the construction sector, marine, aviation sector they all need welders which makes it one of the hotcake jobs in the world", he said.

Women Urged to Enter into Welding

Even though society sees it as a trade dominated by males, a welding lecturer, Ing. Gladys Pepertaul Awudi encouraged industry players to engage female welders to motivate more women to venture into the profession.

"Unfortunately for us in Ghana, we don't have a lot of industries and the main industry players also do not want to engage women for full-time because all the time that I worked, even in Tema Oil Refinery, I was doing contract and casual work. And the ladies, after doing that for some time, get fed up and frustrated with the system. So they find themselves something else to do.

Some lecturers also bemoaned the fact that the needed tools and equipment with adequate consumables (training materials) for training and education are most of the time not forthcoming and that makes practical sessions not very effective.

At the end of the contest, Michael Eshun of the Sunyani Technical University was crowned the overall winner with Timothy Avorseh, Justice Kwesi Boadu, Gideon Ofori Ntiri and Agnes Anakwara of the Koforidua Technical University, Sunyani Technical University, Koforidua Technical University and Guinness Ghana Limited placing second, third and fourth respectively.

The contestants believe they have chosen the right career path and encouraged others to join.