Embraces the VR revolution

Education is vital to the future of UK manufacturing, and leading the drive to plug the skills gap is UK welding products company Weldability Sif, who over the past 4 years have been diligently working to increase the number of welder training facilities available across the UK. Over the last year, Weldability Sif managed to decrease the deficit of available welders even further, when they joined forces with the manufacturers’ organisation EEF for the expansion of EEF’s welder-training facility.

Based within Aston, Birmingham, is the EEF Technology Training Centre TTC, part of EEF’s Aston Training Campus since 2013. This September saw the centre’s welder training suite get a major revamp, thanks to Weldability Sif.

Newly fitted-out with 24 welding bays and state-of-the-art industrial equipment, the brand new dedicated welder training suite is now at the heart of EEF’s Aston TTC, with the project completed just in time for the start of the new education year. The centre also houses cutting-edge, fully-immersive virtual welder-training equipment from Weldability Sif, providing a complete 'Virtual Learning Environment', which allows students to train digitally and safely before trying their hand at welding for real.

Speaking about the launch in September, Aston TTC Centre Manager Christine Chapman remarked that Weldability Sif’s “high-tech equipment for virtual welding has been a fantastic investment for EEF.” Commenting further on the centre’s virtual welding tools, Chapman believes VirtuWeld technology “compliments the traditional welding facility and allows us to offer our apprentices and other learners an engaging taster for the skills and techniques needed in a real welding environment.”

Thanks to Weldability Sif, students at EEF can now also enjoy “a breadth of welding technology learning, ranging from basic skills to coded welding in a safe and innovative environment, easing learners into the skills they require before using traditional welding equipment, saving both time and cost”, she continued. Discussing their partnership with the UK’s leading independent welding products company, Chapman was “delighted with the service and support that we have received from Weldability Sif and their fume extraction division Extractability.”

Weldability Sif Managing Director, Gareth Hawkins, commented “The new welding centre will support EEF’s existing courses and apprenticeships, and marks yet another successful deployment of a Weldability Sif training centre within a prestigious industrial educator. We are proud to work with EEF on this venture.” The company has now provided facilities across 35 education locations in the UK which are actively engaged in having issued more than 10,000 qualifications since embarking upon their mission to ensure welders are trained to high standards in the UK. The company provides vocational welder training facilities around the UK, further tackling British manufacturing’s current shortage of skilled welders.