Papers Presented during 68th Annual Assemly of International Institute of Welding Held at Helsinki, Finland on June - July 2015:Welding as A Career-Indian Perspective

In today's highly competitive world every individual is keen on acquiring or continues to acquire such qualifications, certifications that will help him progress in his career, preferably, at a rapid phase. The term progress most of the time means higher emoluments, benefits, positions in the organisation etc. In order to achieve this, individuals keep looking at the industry trends, emerging opportunities, feedback from their friends etc. and take decisions as to how they should equip themselves to progress further in their career. Some individual don't hesitate to make even drastic changes in their field of activities to embrace new opportunities. In such a scenario where does welding stand? Does it offer a good career? Is it worth venturing in this field? What sort of personnel is required in this field? Is it an equally sought after field and if not why not? Is it a developing field or a field waiting to be written off? Is it a recent field or an ancient field of technology which has not developed over the ages? What type of job can it provide and what will be the type of environment in which we may be working? Does it provide opportunities for all engineering fields or only to a few? Is there any formal qualification, certification leading to specific jobs of it is a field full of self-formulated personnel? Where one can get details of the opportunities in this field? This paper tries to answer most of these questions and also discusses as to why welding can be an equally good career opportunity for many individuals.

Welding is an important and critical activity in many industries. Many surveys project a very good demand for qualified, certified welding personnel at various levels. This field so far has not been a favourite, preferred field for many especially the younger generation though it is on par with many other fields in terms of opportunities, emoluments etc. This is mainly because of the lack of complete information about the opportunities in this field and many misconceptions. The concerted efforts being made by several agencies should go a long way in removing these and it is hoped that the variety of training, education and certification programs presently in place for welding personnel at various levels should be able to generate sufficient number of welding personnel to meet the huge demands of the industries in India and abroad.