Welding students will benefit from a new training centre, boasting state-of-the-art welding equipment provided by the National Training Board (NTB).

Training will be offered by Hobart instructors and will be given to apprentices, unqualified welders and to practising welders who want to re-certify.

Additional training will be provided to high school students, do-it-yourselfers and welding as an art form enthusiasts. It is anticipated that more than forty students from all categories will undergo the training.

Executive director of the NTB, Michael Stowe said: "After 21 months of preparation, planning and development, the NTB in partnership with the Hobart Institute of Welding and Swandell Limited, a local company, the centre will open on November 18.

"The Hobart Institute of Welding Technology (HWIT) is considered as the leading welding training provider in the world and for the first time in its 72-year history it will have a centre outside of the USA."

Mr. Stowe added: "The Government of Bermuda is grateful for their expertise in designing this training facility as a scaled down version of Hobart's 100,000-square-foot and 175-work station facility located in Troy, Ohio.

HWIT will provide a trainer programme in order for three Bermudians to acquire certified welding instructor designations. It is envisioned that after seven years, Bermudians will conduct all welding training.

Mr. Van Swan said: "The centre was built as an environmentally friendly centre, incorporating the latest air extraction and pollution recovery system that meets the most stringent codes.

"In the end, graduates will receive the globally accepted Hobart Institute of Technology diploma, preparing them to meet the increasing demand for highly specialised welding skills, including the maintenance of the governments new aluminium hull, fast ferries."

The centre is located at Swandell Limited, 6 Boundary Crescent, Hermitage Road, Devonshire.