Current practices and future trends in pre-employment skill requirements for welding technologists

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify current practices and future trends in pre-employment skill training requirements for welding technologists. After a search of related literature, it was speculated that survey responses between welding industrialists and welding instructors would indicate a mis -match in pre-employment skill training. The survey instrument separated the welding curriculum into two broad general categories. The first of these dealt with actual welding processes and the second dealt with academic curriculum and allied process knowledge. The samples were selected from two distinct populations. The first was comprised of welding educators and the second contained representatives of the welding industry. A return rate of 81 percent was received from the educators and a return rate of 60 percent from the industrialists. The data were analyzed using a Borich needs assessment model, and then a correlation coefficient was calculated based on the two sets of data using a Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. Conclusions about the current practices indicated that educators were not teaching students for one highly specialized area of welding technology but rather they were educating students to perform in a number of occupations related to the field. The industrialists were basing decisions on a need to know parameter while the educators based them on the ability to obtain employment in a general area which required students to have a broad base of technology from which to operate. Conclusions about the future indicate that the industrialists and the educators were in agreement about future trends. One of the primary challenges which faced educators and industrialists was to improve communication between the two groups. The lag time between the communicated need and the response by educators must be reduced to reflect the rate at which technology is changing. Many avenues are open to reduce this response time. With the increasing rate at which technology changes, education and industry can no longer afford to be out of synchronization. The survival of industry and education both depend on better communication.