Thu, 27 April, 2023
As a forerunner to today’s Welding Institute, The Institute of Welding originally established a School of Welding Technology in response to an overwhelming demand for courses on welding design and construction.
This first course, held in 1957 on the welding of pressure vessels, took place at a property near the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London. This course can be seen as a forerunner to today’s TWI Training, with 100 people applying for the course’s 40 places and quickly leading to more courses being organised until, by the early 1960s, the school had hosted more than 300 visiting lecturers.
Not only did the Institute grow as a community with the increased number of candidates showing up for the courses, but the growing number of courses (as well as the variety of programmes introduced) connected us more with the needs of our audience.
In 1965, the School of Applied Non-Destructive Testing was created by the BWRA and the Non-Destructive Testing Society of Great Britain. This new school pioneered formal training in areas including ultrasonic weld testing and radiographic interpretation, which led to the foundation of what would become CSWIP, the Certification Scheme for Welding and Inspection Personnel.
TWI has gone on to expand across the UK, opening offices and laboratories in Middlesbrough, Aberdeen, Port Talbot and the Advanced Manufacturing Park, South Yorkshire, as well as gaining a presence around the world including in North America, China, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East.
In addition to the added offices and laboratories that are now in place around the world, we have more recently introduced online courses that are not only tailored to the get the best from our senior lecturers’ knowledge but can also be made available bespoke for you. Online courses have multiple positive factors to them, such as time and cost savings and making the content available for study wherever and whenever you need.
TWI Training has grown since the most formative years as part of the Institute to now include a wide variety of international training diplomas and courses such as BGAS-CSWIP, welding specialist, technologist and engineer – IIW/EWF levels, ISO 9712 compliant courses, and accredited to IOSH, NEBOSH, and more.
Hence, as the Institute has continued to serve its Members and support their professional development while promoting the welding profession to subsequent generations, there is still plenty of scope to learn new skills through TWI Training, fulfilling yet another of the original goals of The Welding Institute.
You can find out more about TWI Training here, and find out more about The Welding Institute, here.