TWF Signs MoU with Canadian Welding Body to Optimize Africa’s Manufacturing Industry
The Welding Federation (TWF) and Canadian Welding Bureau Group (CWB Group) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at optimizing Africa’s manufacturing industry through local content.
The MoU, which took effect August 14, focuses on mutual recognition of personnel qualification certificates from both bodies.
Specifically, it implies mutual recognition and promotion of TWF personnel qualification diplomas in Canada’s manufacturing industry and its domain of influence and CWB personnel certification system in Africa’s industries.
CWB is an institution with over one hundred years of top-level performance history with several ice breaking contributions to the welding industry globally.
It has firm reputation in premium services and a wide collection of high-quality welding standards and codes developed through years of research and data gathering.
This is in addition to being known for implementing the most rigorous welding standards and personnel qualification requirements across different spectrums and areas of specialization globally.
“In Africa, we need jobs, because there are more idle hands than engaged hands.
Unfortunately, either ignorantly or by deliberate misguidance we have often confused activities for productivity, motion for accomplishments and most importantly, certificates for empowerment.
While skill consists, it is but a component of the empowerment matrix.
What Africa needs is an industry solution, not simply empowerment,” said Executive Director of TWF, Ayo Adeniyi.
The TWF-CWB group collaboration is expected to make positive impact for Africa in terms of
- identity management,
- access to opportunities beyond Africa,
- access to high quality skills and
- research support.
According to Adeniyi, to build and optimize Africa’s manufacturing industries; member states must first understand the need to operate local but build continental capabilities and access routes.
He, however, regretted that most of Africa’s member states still pay low to zero level attention to competitive and integrated industry skill development.
He added that skills are developed locally but not competitive, nor dynamically driven by the industry like the platform which TWF offers.
Experts believe that Africa has enough potentials to engage its skilled population and demand more.
However, the continent needs to integrate capacities and capabilities to adequately harness these potentials, including attracting or connecting Africans to opportunities beyond Africa due to its high youthful population.
The TWF-CWB MoU is also expected to empower Africans with
- both the skill to demonstrate expertise in Africa’s industries and
- also equip candidates with the skill and access to opportunities in Canada’s industries, specifically in boiler making and automotive welding.
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Full accreditation of Vocational Training Institutions (private and public) within the TWF network will commence by last quarter of 2024 for implementation of TWF Welder and welding Inspector programs, as well as CWB Boiler welder and Automotive welder programs.
The latter will serve to formalize Africa’s automotive repair industries, professionalize the practice, and create access to jobs both within and beyond Africa.
The purpose of TWF is to keep building capacities, sustaining frameworks for the integration of national capacities and resources, and optimize opportunities associated with manufacturing industry across all of Africa’s members states at an Africanized cost.
TWF 2nd Annual Assembly and conference on “Materials Manufacturing Technologies- Managing Capacity Africa” is scheduled to hold from 5-8 March, 2024 in Lagos, Nigeria.
