Fronius customers open up opportunities for welder training in India

All sectors are experiencing the symptoms of the shortage of skilled workers. As a result, a growing number of companies where welding is a core task are being forced to train their own specialists or are not able to fill vacancies. This is also the case in India, where recent studies put the country eighth in the world in terms of the skilled labor shortage. Around 81% of employers in India say they have trouble filling vacancies at their companies.

Fronius Perfect Welding develops solutions in close communication with its customers, following the principle of minimal training time combined with maximum handling to give welders even better training, to support them, and to make their work easier so that they can achieve optimum results. Solutions including TIG DynamicWire, the cobot cells, and the new Welducation Simulator are just a few examples of how Fronius is actively tackling the shortage of skilled workers. As a technology leader and a solution-driven provider, the company has always been at the forefront of new developments in the industry. And now Fronius has invited its customers to join in taking steps against the shortage of skilled workers.

Raising awareness thanks to social incentive

Customer surveys may be common, but they’re not exactly loved. Fronius Perfect Welding also wanted to get a better insight into the needs and wishes of its customers. When the Fronius Customer Survey was sent out in the spring of 2024, a little social incentive was added to help keep the survey out of the ’Deleted’ folder! Depending on the response, Fronius committed to make a donation to India’s FACT program and thus provide financial support to participants who are pursuing their training as professional welding specialists. 

Tackling the skills shortage together

FACT stands for “Fronius & Academia Center for Skill Training”, which accurately reflects the program’s goal. A 45-day course delivered by Fronius experts and industry representatives in Pune, India, provides selected participants with in-depth specialist expertise and the soft skills they need to ultimately gain a professional foothold in the welding industry. Unfortunately, not everyone in India has the same access to training opportunities due to extreme poverty and social inequalities. The participants on the program also come from disadvantaged social groups that would otherwise have little access to high-quality training. Eighty-five students have already received professional training since the program was launched in 2023. And this number is set to grow in the future thanks to the support of Fronius customers, who responded to the survey in large numbers. Their active participation generated a sum of around 275,000 Indian rupees (approx. 3,300 euros), which Fronius Perfect Welding is donating to the FACT program on their behalf. The donation check was recently presented to Yogesh Joshi and Umesh Jagtap by Stefanie Helten and Robert Drumm—which means there’s nothing standing in the way of training more welding specialists in India now.