Welding Society to talk about job opportunities:
The American Welding Society is joining with representatives of business, labor unions and schools to discuss ways of recruiting people to careers in welding, where retirements are creating shortages.
Leaders of the Welding Society, a trade organization, said they hope to create a Welding Advisory Council to encourage additional welder training programs and bring educators, businesses and unions together to find solutions.
Extras
The Sheet Metal Workers, Local 33, will host a daylong meeting on Wednesday at its union hall in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, to discuss establishing the welding council.
The society said that about half of the nation's welder work force is nearing retirement, and that North America as a whole faces a potential shortage of more than 200,000 welders by 2010.
The Hobart Institute of Welding Technology in Troy specializes in training welders and welding inspectors.
