Waterford Wexford Training Services Deliver First Red Seal Qualification in Ireland

The team at Waterford Wexford Training Services has delivered the first ever internationally recognised Red Seal Qualification course for Welding in Ireland through a partnership with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Apprenticeship and Industry Training Alberta.

The Red Seal programme is the Canadian standard of excellence for skilled trades; it is evidence that a tradesperson has met the highest standard required in order to do his or her job. It sets common standards to assess the skills of trade’s persons across Canada and the programme was initially created following the first ever International Convention on Apprenticeship in Trades and Industries, which was held in 1952.

A class group, which consisted of tradespersons from all across Ireland, recently qualified from the programme, which was run at the Waterford Training Centre. This is the first time that the Red Seal Training programme has been run outside of Canada. The qualification enables its participants to finesse their trade and gain an internationally recognised qualification enabling them to travel and work in their trade opening doors to many job opportunities.

Commenting on the course delivery and what it means for it’s participants, PJ McAuliffe Waterford Training Centre said, “To deliver this course outside of Canada is quite a big deal, it is the first time this has ever occurred and it offers exciting prospects for all of the tradespersons who gain the qualification. Ordinarily those tradespersons if they wished to work in their industry in Canada they would need to sit this rigorous testing whilst there in order to gain employment; now having participated in the specialised training programme here and having sat all of the necessary exams those qualified can secure jobs prior to travelling.”

The Waterford Training Centre developed a curriculum for the course in conjunction with the Alberta Apprenticeship and Training Industry in Canada and the curriculum was lead by instructor Michael Murphy whom is also Red Seal qualified.

Tom McEnroe Ireland’s representative for the Red Seal programme said, “It is fantastic to have worked with Waterford Wexford Training Services and to have delivered the first ever Red Seal programme outside of Canada. It is a real milestone. This qualification offers numerous opportunities for those involved; typically most of the Red Seal qualified tradespersons would work mainly on shutdowns in North Canada where there is a high demand for these skilled tradespersons.”

The course delivery was so successful the course is now under further development. For further details see wwetbtraining.ie

Pictured are the first Red Seal course participants at the WWETB Waterford Training Centre back, L-R is Kevin Ryan, David Murphy, Graham Walsh, Walter Howlin, Padraic Tolan, Fabian Carroll, Jeremy Flemming, Mark Lane Joynt, Wojciech Blach, Mark Walsh, Derek Binnions, Paul Keane, William Dunphy, Martina Moyles, Michael Murphy (WWETB) and Michael Moore
Front L_R is Trevor Bartley, Ken Lodwig (AIT), Julia Penner (AIT), PJ McAuliffe (WWETB), Grant Jacobs (IBB), John Cassidy (WWETB), Tom McEnroe (IBB), Martina English (WWETB), Conan Brennan, Roland Corignan (AIT) and John Guthrie.