The 5th International Welding Competition was held in Shanghai from June 24 to June 30. The competition was attended by teams from 67 countries. The Kazakhstan team formed by the Kazakhstan Welding Association KazWeld took second place in the team classification. The team had 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.
The KazWeld executive director Rustambek Abdurakhmanov told the MIA Kazinform correspondent who stood out in the competition and how Kazakhstan welders reached such a high level of professional skill.
- Rustambek Ubaidullaevich, tell us, please, how was the competition?
- The nomination “Welding in four ways” is considered the most prestigious among welders. Asylbek Chonekbayev from Aktau Training Center won a gold medal and a diploma for the first place in this nomination.
Gary Marcus, President of the International Welding Institute, personally handed him over an award. The award was attended by delegates from 59 countries of the 70th IWI General Assembly.
Scientists and engineers participated in the new nomination “Theory of welding processes and new welding technologies”.
The second place in this nomination was taken by Aliya Abdurakhmanova.
Zhanserik Orazayev from Trust Sredazenergomontazh JSC got two bronze medals in the Argon Arc Welding Process 141 / TIG nomination and the Welding of Special Materials (Stainless Steel) nomination.
- What accounts for such a success of Kazakhstan welders?
- First of all a high result was achieved through training. Our Association is an authorized agency for training centers accreditation for the welding specialist training and education under the program of the International Institute of Welding. Kazakhstan has a network of training centers that train welders. 76 engineers are trained in accordance with international standards. Two centers operate in Aktau, three in Atyrau, one in Aksay of West Kazakhstan region, one in Aktobe, two in Karaganda. The teaching staff and instructors are all from Kazakhstan. The object of creating centers and the Kazakhstan Welding Association was to increase the number of local workers in the welding industry.
In the last few years industry has been rapidly developing in our country through the State program of industrial and innovative development.
Thousands of enterprises have been created. Welding is needed at any industrial company: mining, metallurgy, engineering, oil and gas and other industries. It is difficult to find an industry where welding is not applied. The appearance of a large number of these enterprises, large volumes of industrial and civil construction has led to the fact that the number of welding personnel has increased significantly. The number of welding personnel has increased significantly due to a large number of such enterprises creation. Due to quantitative changes, a quantum leap has taken place. Many talented welders, planning engineers, welding inspectors, and other welding specialists came to light.
It is worth noting that in Kazakhstan there are many foreign companies that demand high level of proficiency and adequate training.
All in all, I'd like to mention our welders are not only the best, but also are able to meet competition.
The last factor of success is the selection of the best employees. We appealed to line ministries, to large companies that regularly run professional competitions. And they told us about the winners of different competitions, which honorably represented our country in Shanghai.
- Where do welders get basic training and how does it meet up-to-date requirements?
- We have a program for technical and vocational education. Previously, we also had a lot of colleges in all areas where workers were trained.
Of course, college graduates are easier to train because they have theoretical knowledge. Training centers pay more attention to practical skills. In general, welders training is quite expensive. We spend various materials, electricity, gases.
But training centers accept for study without basic training. Sometimes companies direct their workers to learn welding. There is a program in the Mangistau region. Akimat directs young people to study hard to fill occupations and pays out of public funds. Welders, installers, and oil workers are trained in educational institutions.
In our training centers people are trained in alignment with the production demands. They are trained in argon arc welding and special materials welding.
But such education does not exist in all countries. For example, when we were at the competition, some Asian countries representatives said that next time they would not take part in argon arc welding, because they still can not surpass Kazakhstan welders.
As for colleges I can say that old teachers are still there. These teachers studied 25-30 years ago, when there were no technologies that are used today. They teach in the old fashioned way. We need a retraining of these teachers. The same situation with graduates of the past years, they no longer meet the requirements. But this problem will be resolved soon. The Kazakhstan Institute of Welding at the Karaganda University has recently opened. Teachers are retrained and receive international diplomas in welding engineering. The chair of welding was previously fitted with equipment from the 50-60s, but now there is no difference from the Western universities chairs.
- What needs to be done to increase the prestige of working professions including welders?
- In recent times there have been positive developments. For example, young people used to not choose blue-collar jobs in Aktau and Atyrau regions.
But now they have a financial incentive, because the workers wages are growing.
For example, Aktau training center graduates work on a rotating scheme at Ersai company and earn up to 400 thousand tenge per month
Of course, you need to work to improve the working professions image. Sometimes people associates welders only with manual welding and with disgraceful behaviour. But now there are such industries that use semi-automatic welding, automatic welding. And there are also robot systems. In such industries, a welder is an operator and his work is deeply vary from conventional welding. The welder must be able to work with a computer, to programme, to monitor the welding process. I have already said that up-to-date equipment has been installed at the welding chair at Karaganda University. I’m sure, If you show teens this academic chair, most of them will be eager to work in welding sector, because they used to see only ordinary transformers.
The point of view of the welder specialty should change so that young people could know - this is a real male profession.
https://www.inform.kz/ru/kazahstanskie-svarschiki-vpolne-konkurentosposobny-rustambek-abdurahmanov_a3045441
