Advice for Teenager Interested in Career as a Welder?
Discussion
My son, 14 coming up 15, GCSEs in 2026, has suddenly expressed the ambition for a career in . . . welding. He even mentioned underwater welding!
Don’t know where that’s come from, but I’m happy to see signs of motivation (bright but drastic under performing at school - previous expressed interest was something sports / fitness / coaching related).
What’s the “top flight” in welding (presumably industrial or pipeline?) and anyone any knowledge of optimal career paths? What to study where?
Don’t know where that’s come from, but I’m happy to see signs of motivation (bright but drastic under performing at school - previous expressed interest was something sports / fitness / coaching related).
What’s the “top flight” in welding (presumably industrial or pipeline?) and anyone any knowledge of optimal career paths? What to study where?
I’m mechanical maintenance engineer and can tell you getting into welding isn’t a bad thing at all. I’d be looking at companies that offer an apprenticeship. Like most of the engineering sector there many different grades of qualification within the same line of work so a very wide range of pay and opportunities. Where are you based?
If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder (coded basically means they have produced a test piece to be sent away for testing to meet a certain criteria of material, material thickness, type of weld (mig, tig, stick etc), plate, pipe or sheet etc etc to be able to weld according to a weld procedure. These qualifications may be for the person to do the work but it’s the company that owns the qualification so to prevent a person getting qualified before being poached to work with a different company (welder will have to re do the same testing). How some welders get around it is run themselves as their own business and pay for their own testing to be able to contract to any company they want to for more money.
If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder (coded basically means they have produced a test piece to be sent away for testing to meet a certain criteria of material, material thickness, type of weld (mig, tig, stick etc), plate, pipe or sheet etc etc to be able to weld according to a weld procedure. These qualifications may be for the person to do the work but it’s the company that owns the qualification so to prevent a person getting qualified before being poached to work with a different company (welder will have to re do the same testing). How some welders get around it is run themselves as their own business and pay for their own testing to be able to contract to any company they want to for more money.
mattvanders said:
Like most of the engineering sector there many different grades of qualification within the same line of work so a very wide range of pay and opportunities. Where are you based?
If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder.
Thanks for the reply. We’re Hampshire, between Southampton and Bournemouth, but he is used to mobility and the idea of having to travel or relocate. I’d definitely encourage him to get qualified at the higher end.If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder.
Most heavy engineering or contract companies involved with with outage work at power stations or construction of important (ship yard, subs, PSSR vessels) tend to be in the north or Scotland due to cheaper labour but worth looking at Fawley refineries for their apprenticeship- did mine at a refinery and they had welding team. Also the docks will have (less skilled) welding rolls. Start to look up for colleges that offer courses (which may aid getting into apprenticeships).
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Did a search as I remembered the gist of this thread. Give it a read
Did a search as I remembered the gist of this thread. Give it a read
i_alan_i said:
What's the top flight in welding? Submarines maybe. Barrow, Devonport and Faslane, all of which are desperate for people and almost certainly will have huge apprentice programmes (BAE in Barrow do).
Nuclear reactors, Rolls Royce. Probably more money in going off shore but that's a different bag.https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/press-releases/2...
Looks like there is decent money in underwater welding.
https://waterwelders.com/underwater-welding-salary...
https://waterwelders.com/underwater-welding-salary...
website said:
The average salary of an underwater welder in the UK is £69,911. This translates to £33.61 per hour.
Entry-level underwater welders with one to three years of experience earn £49,501. On the other hand, experienced underwater welders with more than eight years of experience can make £86,556 annually.
Besides the salary, underwater welders also receive £1,643 as bonuses annually.
Underwater welding is a competitive field. Most employers will offer competitive salaries and benefits to attract the best candidates.
Entry-level underwater welders with one to three years of experience earn £49,501. On the other hand, experienced underwater welders with more than eight years of experience can make £86,556 annually.
Besides the salary, underwater welders also receive £1,643 as bonuses annually.
Underwater welding is a competitive field. Most employers will offer competitive salaries and benefits to attract the best candidates.
Here’s my story, trade wise I'm Electrical but back in the 90’s with work in the UK hard to find I travelled overseas for work, took me out of my comfort zone and gave a spirit of adventure and motivation. I’d always been able to weld, working in the shipyards of the Clyde & Tyne I’d make my own fixings like brackets and ladder racking. The welders would often let me take over and do a little bit of basic welding.
A neighbour worked as a lecturer and would run night classes which was a great opportunity to just burn rods, when you finally get your hand in it’s pretty easy.
Whilst overseas I got into scuba diving so on a trip home I did the commercial diving course at Fort William and soon (unbelievably quickly) found myself coded and working as an underwater welder, unsurprisingly I wasn’t the greatest but I was useful and had a days graft in me.
First job I did (6 months) paid for our first house.
The memories I have are, it’s dangerous, your underwater which already has a factor of risk, add in electricity, cables, ropes, steelwork blowing about with the current makes it a job site like few others. It’s lonely, just you, the supervisor in your ear and of course whatever sea life is attracted by the lights and fancy’s taking an interest in your work. There’s some grainy pictures in a drawer somewhere of me welding the leg of a jacket in Superlight 17 helmet.
I didn’t stay in the industry long but it was valuable experience, the work however was intermittent so I drifted out of it back into the utility sector.
Good luck to your lad, it’ll take real hard work and dedication but if he’s showing those traits now that already puts him in the top percentile for his cohort. Who knows where it could take him.
A neighbour worked as a lecturer and would run night classes which was a great opportunity to just burn rods, when you finally get your hand in it’s pretty easy.
Whilst overseas I got into scuba diving so on a trip home I did the commercial diving course at Fort William and soon (unbelievably quickly) found myself coded and working as an underwater welder, unsurprisingly I wasn’t the greatest but I was useful and had a days graft in me.
First job I did (6 months) paid for our first house.
The memories I have are, it’s dangerous, your underwater which already has a factor of risk, add in electricity, cables, ropes, steelwork blowing about with the current makes it a job site like few others. It’s lonely, just you, the supervisor in your ear and of course whatever sea life is attracted by the lights and fancy’s taking an interest in your work. There’s some grainy pictures in a drawer somewhere of me welding the leg of a jacket in Superlight 17 helmet.
I didn’t stay in the industry long but it was valuable experience, the work however was intermittent so I drifted out of it back into the utility sector.
Good luck to your lad, it’ll take real hard work and dedication but if he’s showing those traits now that already puts him in the top percentile for his cohort. Who knows where it could take him.
Sounds great...err no,that's not me in the photo btw
Do your son a favour,if he wants a career in engineering,steer him towards an apprenticeship with some like Finning,UK caterpillar dealership,or other heavy equipment firms,few years post apprentice experience and the worlds his ostrich.
Weldings a horrible job in terms of health,and regarding underwater no thanks
Curious as to what peaked his interesting in welding and un particular underwater welding. There ws a time when welding divers earnt a king's ransom. But that was a very long time ago. I worked in the diving industry and yes at the time, late 70s early 80s they could earn the equivalent of a house in a month.
Technology has very largely replaced underwater welding, with mechanical coupling - so that no longer happens.
Welding at atmospheric pressure, dry is not a career - it is a job. Skilled certainly, but unless you are in very specialised roles nothing more than a manual skill. Which is not to say you cannot make a decent honest living from it. Maybe the time to think about these things is when the academic testing is over. Good at manual skills and not the book work? Maybe welding or machining or something similar.
Technology has very largely replaced underwater welding, with mechanical coupling - so that no longer happens.
Welding at atmospheric pressure, dry is not a career - it is a job. Skilled certainly, but unless you are in very specialised roles nothing more than a manual skill. Which is not to say you cannot make a decent honest living from it. Maybe the time to think about these things is when the academic testing is over. Good at manual skills and not the book work? Maybe welding or machining or something similar.
Echo some of the above.
Get in with a decent firm as an apprentice and you’ll have a job for life.
I worked with babcocks when I used to work in nuclear. Alstom is another who are always looking for apprentices.
Decent money to be made welding stainless, ti and other specialty metals.
Get in with a decent firm as an apprentice and you’ll have a job for life.
I worked with babcocks when I used to work in nuclear. Alstom is another who are always looking for apprentices.
Decent money to be made welding stainless, ti and other specialty metals.
Pete54 said:
Curious as to what peaked his interesting in welding and un particular underwater welding.
Me too! The welding-in-general bit is a complete mystery! The more I read about it, the more enthusiastic I am, both directly (as a career), and - for the here and now - to give him some motivation for GCSEs in sixteen months time (he’s bright, at grammar school, but pretty demotivated and disillusioned there).(His mum’s not as pleased as I am, thinking that he’d be wasting his talents (not her exact words)).
The underwater bit may be my fault . . . idea association as one conversation flowed into another, as he’s doing a PADI course this summer. But this thread has been really useful in clarifying that he needs to aim for the high end specialist stuff.
NoPackDrill said:
mattvanders said:
Like most of the engineering sector there many different grades of qualification within the same line of work so a very wide range of pay and opportunities. Where are you based?
If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder.
Thanks for the reply. We’re Hampshire, between Southampton and Bournemouth, but he is used to mobility and the idea of having to travel or relocate. I’d definitely encourage him to get qualified at the higher end.If you don’t know much about welding you can can get your back street weld up a car welder or a qualified coded welder.
Also gives you scope to qualify right up to the Nuclear standard welding which is where the money is without getting your feet wet.
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