Australia’s welding industry continues to grapple with a severe skills shortage, with a projected shortfall of more than 70,000 welders by 2030.
COMMENT – Geoff Crittenden, CEO, Weld Australia
We have reached a juncture that poses a threat to our national economic growth and productivity – with major infrastructure projects already at risk of delays due to a lack of skilled workers.
Welders are more in demand than ever, due to large-scale initiatives like AUKUS, South Australia’s $9.9 billion Torrens to Darlington (T2D) project and the renewables revolution, as well as metropolitan infrastructure projects such as the $12 billion Sydney Metro and the $5 billion Melbourne Airport Rail Link. While larger firms absorb as much available talent as possible, small to medium businesses across the general manufacturing sector are left unable to access the workforce they need to continue operations.
These conditions make it imperative for construction and manufacturing businesses, industry bodies, and government agencies to work together, adopting a multi-pronged approach that includes investment into both training and technology.
What’s causing the welder skills shortage?
Even before the global pandemic, the number of welding trade workers in Australia was in steady decline – falling by 8 per cent in five years, from 75,800 in 2014 to 69,600 in 2019. Completion rates of welding apprenticeships are also dropping, as much as 23 per cent each year.
The impact of COVID-19 only exacerbated the issue, as the closure of international borders to migrants and short-term workers had the effect of further shrinking the labour pool. Welding job vacancies have increased in recent years, by 87 per cent in Queensland and 80 per cent in Western Australia – the two most impacted states.
Another factor is Australia’s changing demographics: an ageing workforce means that around 30 per cent of welders are now aged over 45 years. As the industry faces a wave of retirements in the decade ahead, with fewer younger people entering the profession, welding positions will simply become impossible to fill.
These are concerns, given how critical welding will be to the success of our renewable energy revolution. However, the problem is not unique to Australia, with Europe, the UK and North America all experiencing massive welding shortages.
The need for upskilling
Weld Australia has developed an innovative solution: a micro-credentialling program that is designed to produce job-ready, certified welders within four to 12 weeks. This rapid training will complement existing apprenticeship models, while accelerating the process of getting welders onto sites to fill the growing skills gap.
This program offers an immediate solution by providing students with targeted procedure training aligned with the ISO 9606 standard. Graduates are certified to perform specific welding procedures so they can start contributing to the workforce sooner. At the same time, they can continue their long-term apprenticeship pathway to become qualified. In fact, students who complete the ISO 9606 micro-credential are better positioned to complete further training, equipped with hands-on industry experience and practical skills.
A key objective of the micro-credential program is to create rapid pathways for marginalised groups, tapping into a pool of potential workers who have traditionally been underrepresented in skilled trades. After Weld Australia’s success with prison welding programs in Victoria, there are plans to extend the program to school leavers, indigenous communities, women in welding initiatives, and the long-term unemployed. Providing participants with the skills they need to enter the workforce will not only fill the talent gap but improve employment outcomes for these groups – helping them secure stable, high-paying careers in welding.
This program is not intended to replace existing apprenticeship models but rather to complement them, providing a full spectrum of short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to the growing skills gap. The new approach offers flexibility for both individuals and employers, accelerating the process of getting welders onto job sites while still supporting the long-term training pathways of apprenticeships.
Rather than competing with traditional apprenticeship programs, our micro-credential approach fills the gaps and enhances the offering. It allows students to start contributing to the workforce quickly, while keeping the door open for further, long-term training. This way, we have a comprehensive approach to addressing the welding shortage.
Weld Australia is currently working to establish welding academies and build partnerships with industry stakeholders to deliver the micro-credential program where it’s most needed, ensuring a steady pipeline of workers to regions facing the highest demand.
Solving the productivity challenge
In the construction sector, lack of productivity is one of the major barriers to project completion – resulting in only 50 per cent of project owners meeting delivery deadlines, according to KPMG’s Global Construction Survey. While the number of construction workers has increased in the past decade, output per worker has reduced. The average person now works two hours less per year, and yet their output is around 25 per cent lower.
For businesses that are already grappling with skills shortages, greater productivity is the key to raising worker output. This will be crucial to the sector’s ability to deliver on the Federal Government’s pipeline of $120 billion infrastructure spend and $800 billion investment in renewable projects by 2050. Improvements to the industry’s productivity performance is also a boon for the Australian economy, saving an estimated $47 billion annually.
Weld Australia’s 2024 Member Survey revealed that half of Australia’s welding workshops are operating at 80 per cent capacity or below, largely because of a lack of skilled workers. More than 42 per cent of welders are spending eight hours or less on site every day, and one quarter spend less than two hours of their shift doing actual welding. Businesses that maximise their efficiencies benefit from cost savings and better use of resources, with productivity gains leading to faster completion times.
Investment in advanced technologies
Advanced technologies, including automation, robots and collaborative robots (also known as cobots), play an essential role in driving efficiencies and improving productivity. Automation has the power to accelerate processes and eliminate workflow delays, errors, and bottlenecks, while delivering superior quality outcomes with higher repeatability.
A report commissioned by Google noted that automation could deliver a $1.2 trillion boost to the Australian economy by 2030 through productivity gains. Increases in productivity also enable manufacturers to adapt quickly to changing customer needs and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in domestic and export markets.
Cobots are robotic arms that are designed to work alongside human beings – being smaller, lightweight, more versatile, and easier to program than industrial robots. By taking on mundane and repetitive tasks, they don’t replace workers but rather free up their time and energy to focus on high-value activities that require critical thinking and creativity. Cobots are also capable of collecting enormous volumes of data that can be leveraged in areas such as predictive maintenance.
Importantly, the use of robots and cobots actually improves safety for welders and other manufacturing workers, by reducing dangerous and physically demanding work and removing welders from exposure to potential hazards, toxic fumes, UV radiation, heat and sparks. As a result, workplace injuries are predicted to fall by 11 per cent and unburden the average Australian of two hours of the most tedious and manual work each week, creating a safer and more satisfying working environment.
Despite the clear benefits – from improved productivity and quality to worker safety and satisfaction – Australia tends to lag in digital adoption, and the welding industry is no exception. Advanced technologies are becoming a crucial factor in the success of a welding business, but uptake of cobots and robots remains low in comparison to other advanced economies. Australia recently dropped from 18th to 35th (out of 37) globally for industrial robot application.
With advancements in robotics and automation technology, and the likelihood of increased industry uptake, the issue of employment rates is inevitably raised.
Media outlets frequently report that the more automated the manufacturing industry becomes, the less jobs there are available. This is simply untrue. Robotics and automation technology make manufacturing processes more efficient and increase productivity and competitiveness. This is important for small-to-medium businesses which, in Australia, account for over 90 per cent of the manufacturing industry.
This increased productivity and competitiveness can increase demand, creating new job opportunities, particularly for highly skilled workers, and have a positive impact on wages.
Robots substitute labour activities but do not replace jobs. According to the International Federation of Robotics, less than 10 per cent of jobs are automatable. Increasingly, robots are used to complement and augment labour activities; the net impact on jobs and the quality of work is positive.
Technological innovations allow businesses to make better use of human skill and innovation, with machines taking over mundane tasks so that employees can focus on critical thinking, quality and creativity. This opens new opportunities for businesses to improve and optimise their operations.
In light of this, Weld Australia is currently partnering with two of the world’s largest not-for-profit welding organisations: EWI in the United States and CWB in Canada. This partnership will pave the way for cutting-edge international manufacturing expertise to flow into Australia. Weld Australia members, and the broader manufacturing industry, will be able to access the latest research and innovations in welding, advanced technology, materials science and more.
Powering Australia’s industrial growth
To secure Australia’s manufacturing future, we must urgently address the welding skills shortage. By fostering the right training programs, embracing advanced technology, and breaking down barriers to skilled employment, we can build a robust workforce capable of driving productivity and innovation.
This isn’t just about bridging a skills gap – it’s about positioning Australia’s welding sector for sustainable growth, ensuring our ability to deliver on ambitious infrastructure projects and compete on a global scale. With a multi-faceted approach, the welding industry is poised to overcome its challenges and thrive – powering Australia’s industrial growth for generations to come.