Position Overview

Welders operate welding equipment to weld ferrous and non-ferrous metals. This unit group also includes machine operators who operate previously set up production welding, brazing and soldering equipment. They are employed by companies that manufacture structural steel and platework, boilers, heavy machinery, aircraft and ships and other metal products, and by welding contractors and welding shops, or they may be self-employed. Apprentices are also included in this unit group.

Key Responsibilities

• Welders
  • Read and interpret blueprints or welding process specifications
  • Operate manual or semi-automatic welding equipment to fuse metal segments using processes such as gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), plasma arc welding (PAW), shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), oxy-acetylene welding (OAW), resistance welding and submerged arc welding (SAW)
  • Operate manual or semi-automatic flame-cutting equipment
  • Operate brazing and soldering equipment
  • Operate metal shaping machines such as brakes, shears and other metal straightening and bending machines
  • Repair worn parts of metal products by welding on extra layers.

  Welders may specialize in certain types of welding such as custom fabrication, ship building and repair, aerospace precision welding, pressure vessel welding, pipeline construction welding, structural construction welding, or machinery and equipment repair welding.

Qualifications

• Completion of secondary school is usually required.
• Completion of a three-year apprenticeship program
  or
  A combination of over three years of work experience in the trade and some college or industry courses in welding is usually required to be eligible for trade certification.
• Red Seal endorsement is also available to qualified welders upon successful completion of the interprovincial Red Seal examination.

Additional Information

• Progression to supervisory positions is possible with experience.

• Some structural metal and platework fabricators and fitters may also be certified as skilled welders.

• The Red Seal endorsement allows for interprovincial mobility.