The State of Welding Education During COVID-19
Reprinted with permission: The AWS Welding Journal By: W. Richard Polanin W. RICHARD POLANIN is president of WRP Associates, Germantown Hills, Ill.; coprincipal investigator for The National Center for Welding Education and Training (Weld-Ed); and vice president of the American Welding Society, Miami, Fla. The National Center for Welding Education and Training (Weld-Ed) is a national partnership between the welding and materials joining industry and the nation’s community and technical colleges and universities that is dedicated to expanding the role and pipeline of welding technicians in industry. Weld-Ed was funded in 2007 as an Advanced Technological Education National Center by the National Science Foundation. Weld-Ed’s website can be found at weld-ed.org. As the world continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic, we, at the National Center for Welding Education and Training (Weld-Ed), are beginning to see some patterns in the delivery methods and limitations within welding education. These patterns can be seen in the analyzed data from a survey we conducted that was sent to welding instructors in April 2020.The National Center for Welding Education and Training (Weld-Ed) compiled a survey to determine the effect of COVID-19 on welding education. The survey established welding instructors will need to develop new strategies for demonstrations.