Ghana has no standard on welding

Daniel Kwarkyi, a Certified Welding Inspector on Friday said Ghana must adapt to international standard in welding to enable its citizenry access employment in the oil and gas sector.

He said technical schools and their instructors, though are doing their best, lacked international standard of practice and this was hampering quality transfer of knowledge as most of these instructors themselves did not have international qualification.

Mr. Kwarkyi also a certified Welding Educator and a member of the American Welding Society told the GNA in an interview that a good welder must be able to weld at all positions having in mind a positive attitude, habit to work.

He said Ghana’s oil industry had another window of opportunity to create employment for the many unemployed Ghanaian youths and called for proper training and certification adding, Welding either onshore or offshore requires a skilled and seasoned welders.

Mr. Kwarkyi said there was the need for the country to direct attention to the area of welding which offered numerous job opportunities with the right certification and qualification.

Mr Kwarkyi, who also runs the Takoradi Welding Training and Testing Centre, said his outfit had the capacity to train welders from the initial F1 to F4 qualification and the 6G qualification required for the offshore oil and gas welding.

Mr. Kwarkyi also suggested the establishment of a national welding centre that met international standards by the Ministry of Education, the Council for Vocational and Technical Education (COTVET) and the National Vocational and Technical Institute (NAVTI).