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Apprenticeship training course

Welding (mechanised) – Apprenticeship unit (level 2)

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Information about Welding (mechanised) – Apprenticeship unit (level 2)

This apprenticeship unit is for existing welders who, with the support of their employer, need to upskill to mechanised welding.

Knowledge, skills and behaviours
View knowledge, skills and behaviours

Technical knowledge

  • Weld visual inspection, dimensional tolerances and alignment of the welded component.
  • Causes and prevention of welding defects and distortion.
  • Welded joints: types, preparation, permanent and temporary backing.
  • Material preparation and removal methods using both powered and non-powered tools. 
  • Personal protective equipment (PPE). 
  • Welding gases and equipment: cylinder colours, regulators, storage. 
  • Ancillary equipment: cabling and their assembly, interconnecting communications cables, torches and tongs.
  • Principles and practices of restoring the work area on completion of welding.
  • Safe systems of work, hazards and risks, isolation and emergency stop procedures, situational awareness.
  • Welding power sources: invertor, rectifier, transformer, alternating and direct currents and positive and negative polarities.
  • Mechanised welding processes and techniques.
  • Control of weld settings.
  • Awareness of health and safety regulations, standards and guidance and impact on role. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (CoSHH). Fire safety. Health and Safety at Work Act. Safety equipment: guards, signage, fire extinguishers. Safety signage. Slips, trips, and falls. Working in confined spaces. Working at height. Manual handling.

Technical skills

  • Restore the work area on completion of the welding activity, for example, clean equipment and machinery, tidy the work area, return excess resources and consumables.
  • Identify surface defects.
  • Check and use or operate tools and equipment.
  • Apply health and safety procedures including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
  • Apply visual inspection, dimensional and alignment checks.
  • Prepare welding materials and work area: sourcing, checking and protecting.
  • Adapt welding techniques to weld materials in different positions, for example, down-hand, horizontal-vertical, horizontal, vertical-up, vertical-down, overhead, inclined.
  • Weld materials in different joint configurations, for example, butt, T-butt, fillet, cladding or buttering.
  • Weld using processes, for example, submerged arc welding (SAW), tractor-mounted metal inert or metal active gas (MIG or MAG), tractor-mounted flux cored arc welding (FCAW), tractor-mounted or orbital tungsten inert gas (TIG), tractor-mounted or orbital plasma arc welding (PAW).
  • Set, modify and monitor welding controls, for example, current, arc voltage, wire feed speed, gas flow rates, polarity, mechanised tractor units.
Apprenticeship category (sector)
Engineering and manufacturing
Qualification level
2
Equal to GCSE
Course duration
90 months
Funding
£1,000
Maximum government funding for
apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
Job titles include
  • General welder
  • Weld setter
  • Welding fabricator

View more information about Welding (mechanised) – Apprenticeship unit (level 2) from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.