Acute shortage of welders to hit Gujarat’s industrial output

AHMEDABAD: The Indian Institute of Welding has projected that Gujarat will reel under acute shortage of 60,000 welders during 2017-22, which would directly hit its industrial output.

IIW president R. Srinivasan has warned that Gujarat must initiate its skill development machinery to overcome the severe shortage in employable skills.

“We have petitioned the Chief Ministers Office and Bhupendrasinh Chudasma – Minister for Higher & Technical Education about the absence of skilled welders and gas cutters. Skilled welding professionals at all levels; pipe and plate welders, supervisors and welding engineers continue to be in short supply,” he said.

He said several project contractors across Alang, Jamnagar, Junagad and Rajkot have imported welding and cutting operators from China, Russia and East Europe. Though Gujarat has over 525 Institutes offering Diploma Courses, Engineering Colleges and Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) which imparts skill training the Gujarat government has projected an overall deficit of 10.67 lakh skilled human resources for the five year period ending 2022.

According to a study conducted in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Junagad, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Alang & Surat together project a shortage of 60,000 welding professionals during 2017-22.

The Indian Institute of Welding (IIW) has offered to partner with the Gujarat government to up-skill youth and overcome the shortage of competency-certified welding workforce.