Recruiting welders: methods, certificates and the tested range

What a welder’s document actually says

A welder qualification test under ČSN EN ISO 9606-1 does not happen in general terms. The welder welds a test piece under precisely defined conditions, and the certificate then describes the range that has been verified by it. That range — not the word "welder" — is the information recruitment has to work with.

The range is made up of several variables at once, and a change in any of them can mean the document does not cover your work. The standard cited concerns steels; aluminium and its alloys are dealt with in a different part of the same standard, so a certificate for steel says nothing about the ability to weld aluminium.

The variables the certificate names:

• The welding method in its numeric designation under ČSN EN ISO 4063 — for example 111 (manual metal arc welding with a covered electrode), 135 (MAG with solid wire), 136 (flux-cored wire), 141 (TIG with a tungsten electrode)
• The base material group — unalloyed and stainless steel are not the same thing
• The product type — plate or tube
• The weld type — butt or fillet
• The welding position in the designation under ČSN EN ISO 6947, for example PA, PB, PC or PF; some positions cover others
• The material thickness and, for tubes, the diameter, from which the range of validity is derived
• The root treatment — with or without backing

Why an advertisement for "a welder" attracts unusable applicants

If the range is missing from the advertisement, the applicant supplies it themselves. Someone applies with a basic course in method 111 on sheet, because they are quite right to call themselves a welder — and arrives at a workplace where method 141 on stainless tube is specified, position PF, and a weld without root backing. Nobody lied; the two sides simply pictured different work under the same word.

The cost is not only in wasted interviews. An imprecise brief also distorts how the position looks on the market: the company concludes that welders are unavailable, when in fact it has not yet described what it needs. A brief that states the range works the other way, as a filter: someone without that range usually does not apply, and whoever does apply brings a document that can be compared against the requirement.

Pay is the one item this page leaves to you: no wage figures and no ranges are stated here. Orientation by occupation and by region is published by the Czech average-earnings information system (Informační systém o průměrném výdělku, ISPV). What belongs in the decision itself is the breadth of qualification you are asking for, the shift pattern, and whether the work is in the workshop or on installation away from the plant.

What belongs in the advertisement:

• The method, the material group, the product type, the position and the range of thicknesses
• A distinction between workshop work and installation on site or at a customer
• Whether work is done to a welding procedure specification (WPS) and to a drawing
• Whether you require a valid test certificate, or whether a logbook and instruction are enough
• The shift pattern — in this trade it markedly affects how many people are interested

Welding logbook, basic course and test certificate

Two different documents are mixed up in practice. A welding logbook recording a basic course evidences that the person was taught a given method at a welding school and can work with it. A welder qualification certificate under ČSN EN ISO 9606-1 is the outcome of a test before an examining body and defines the range in which the welder may work where a product standard or a customer requires it.

For ordinary workshop production without special requirements, a logbook and instruction may suffice. As soon as you evidence welding quality to a customer or under standards that set quality requirements for fusion welding, you need the test and, with it, welding supervision to administer the welding procedures and the welders’ qualifications. Settle that question before you start recruiting — it changes both the pool of candidates and what you will ask of them.

A certificate is not for life. The standard ties it to periodic confirmation that the welder actually works within the given range, and to a limited validity with conditions for renewal. The dates and the range are stated on the document itself; when you verify one, that is the first thing to read.

The trial weld is the decisive step

A document says what the person managed on the day of the test under test-house conditions. Whether they can do your work is decided by a trial weld. Prepare a piece that matches your ordinary order — the same material, thickness, position, joint preparation, and if possible the welding procedure used in your shop.

Watch more than the appearance of the finished weld: how the person sets up the power source, whether they read the drawing, how they prepare and clean the material, how they handle the shielding gas, and how they check the weld themselves. Leave the assessment to whoever is responsible for welding in your operation, and write it down — in disputed cases, and in a later round of recruitment, the record pays for itself. And because this is work with real risk, a candidate doing a trial weld must also be issued protective equipment and briefed on the rules of the workplace. The conditions should be the same for every applicant for the same position.

Welders from abroad and their documents

Recruiting welders from abroad is common, and the document is often issued under the same standard as in the Czech Republic, because it is an adopted international standard. That does not make it usable without further checks. Verify who issued the certificate, what range it contains, whether it is valid, and whether your customer accepts it — for deliveries with documented welding quality that is usually decisive. Where the conditions are not met, a test in the Czech Republic follows.

The second matter is communication. A welder works to a drawing and to a welding procedure, and has to understand safety instructions. Decide in advance how you will make sure they understand these documents; for installation work away from the workshop that goes double.

Safety, protective equipment and fitness for work

Welding has its own risk profile, and recruitment meets it on day one. Besides burns and flying sparks there is arc radiation, which damages both eyes and skin, and welding fume — particularly monitored for stainless steels and surface-treated materials. Extraction at the workplace is therefore addressed, and for some work respiratory protection as well.

Welding away from a fixed welding station carries particular fire-safety requirements under Czech rules: conditions set out in writing for the work in question, and supervision continuing after it has finished. That has consequences for planning — an installation welder is not simply a welder who travels, but a role carrying further administration and responsibility.

What the trade adds on entry:

• A welding helmet of the correct shade number, and flame-resistant clothing
• Extraction of welding fume at the workplace, and for some materials respiratory protection as well
• An entry occupational-medical examination that takes eyesight and working postures into account
• Familiarisation with the risks of the workplace — on a temporary assignment it is the user undertaking that provides it