National Certificate in Welding and Metal Fabrication
Steel is the skeleton of everything Uganda is building: housing, commercial construction, agro machinery, water infrastructure, furniture, transport bodies and the industrial corridor around oil and its pipeline.
Occupational profile
What you'll be paid to do
Steel is the skeleton of everything Uganda is building: housing, commercial construction, agro machinery, water infrastructure, furniture, transport bodies and the industrial corridor around oil and its pipeline.
Every one of those markets reports the same shortage: welders who can pass a test, and fabricators who can deliver a product square, sound and on time.
Employers routinely state that certified welders are recruited within days, and the The graduate works as any of the following, employed or self employed, in every town in the country: and construction contractors, steel erectors monthly; coded work furniture gates, furniture, tanks, monthly; product margins water and energy monthly projects with codes
| Occupation | Where the work is | Starting earnings, observed 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Welder, fabrication shops and construction | Fabricators, building contractors, steel erectors | UGX 400,000 to 900,000 monthly; coded work substantially higher |
| Fabricator, products and furniture | Workshops making doors, gates, furniture, tanks, bodies; own workshop | UGX 350,000 to 800,000 monthly; product margins self employed |
| Maintenance welder | Factories, farms, fleets, water and energy installations | UGX 450,000 to 900,000 monthly |
| Site erection welder | Structural and roofing | Day rates commonly UGX |
The 90-Day Promise
From certification to income, stated concretely
Day Pathway Named employer categories with which the College holds or is concluding placement and hiring partnerships: structural steel and fabrication companies; building contractors; vehicle body and trailer builders; furniture manufacturers; factory, estate and fleet maintenance departments; and the fabrication supply chains of the energy corridor.
Partnership target: twenty active partners by the first cohort's year two training, each offering at least two placements.
The ninety day pathway from certification to income:
Day 0: graduation with the Capability Transcript, the mentor's reference, the exit project as portfolio, and a mock trade test result that predicts the real one.
Day 0: graduation with the Capability Transcript, the mentor's reference, the exit project as portfolio, and a mock trade test result that predicts the real one.
Days 1 to 30: employed route: three arranged interviews with placement hosts who supervised the graduate for twenty two weeks across two years; trade test booking supported by the College. Self employed route: the product line or workshop continues trading; the mentor reviews month one.
Days 31 to 90: employed route: probation support from the practice tutor. Self employed route: referral listing for partner overflow fabrication and the College's own campus works, standing terms in the partnerships.
Measurement: employment or trading status recorded at day 90 and published in the annual outcomes report, per Part Two, section 2.9.
Programme structure
Every module, with its arithmetic
One credit unit equals ten notional learning hours. 240 credit units, 2400 notional hours: 565 contact, 1435 practical and 330 industrial hours, so practical and industrial hours are 74 per cent of the programme.
h g and and and s in n One and MAG and and Two ent Practical and industrial hours together are 1765 of 2400 notional hours, 74 per cent, meeting the hands on test.
Semester 1
| Code | Module | CU | Contact h | Practical h | Industry h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLD101 | Workshop Safety and Hot WorkWelding concentrates more ways to be hurt than any other trade in this compendium: arc, heat, fume, gas, weight and noise. The learner is made safe first, and stays assessed on it in every later module. | 8 | 25 | 55 | 0 |
| WLD102 | Engineering Materials and MeasurementA fabricator who cannot measure or does not know the metal is guessing with sparks. The learner grounds the trade: steels and their behaviour, and measurement to the millimetre. | 10 | 40 | 60 | 0 |
| WLD103 | Bench Fitting and Fabrication BasicsBefore the arc: saw, file, drill, grind, bend and bolt. The learner earns hand skills and fit up discipline, because good welds start as good fits. | 12 | 30 | 90 | 0 |
| COM101 | Communication and Workplace SkillsTechnicians rise or stall on how they speak, write, listen and behave on site. Taught through the trade's own situations, never as abstract English. | 6 | 30 | 15 | 0 |
Semester 2
| Code | Module | CU | Contact h | Practical h | Industry h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLD104 | Arc Welding One: Shielded Metal ArcThe trade's foundation process and half the certificate's hood time in year one: manual metal arc on mild steel, flat and horizontal, until beads are boringly consistent. | 16 | 30 | 130 | 0 |
| WLD105 | Gas Welding, Cutting and BrazingOxy fuel remains the rural workshop's most versatile tool: it cuts, welds, brazes and heats. The learner masters the flame lawfully and well. | 12 | 30 | 90 | 0 |
| WLD106 | Engineering Drawing and Weld SymbolsThe drawing is the contract. The learner reads fabrication drawings fluently, sketches their own, and begins computer drafting for the cutting machines of year two. | 10 | 45 | 55 | 0 |
| WLD107 | Power Tools and Machine OperationsThe fabrication shop's machines: saws, drills, grinders, benders, rolls, shears and the lathe at induction level. The learner runs them productively and keeps them alive. | 12 | 30 | 90 | 0 |
| SPN301AI spine | AI Tools and Data in FabricationThe spine applied to metal: AI assisted quality inspection, cutting optimisation, quoting assistants and the shop data that makes a fabricator profitable. | 8 | 30 | 40 | 0 |
| ITR301 | Industrial Training OneTen assessed weeks in a working fabrication enterprise at the end of year one, under the Part Two policy. | 16 | 0 | 10 | 150 |
Semester 3
| Code | Module | CU | Contact h | Practical h | Industry h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLD201 | Arc Welding Two: Structural and Positional | 16 | 30 | 130 | 0 |
| WLD202 | MIG andYear two's core: the learner welds in position, vertical and overhead, on the joints structures are made of, to the standard coded work demands, and prepares for trade testing. | 14 | 30 | 110 | 0 |
| WLD203 | TIG WeldingThe precision process: stainless, aluminium and the premium work, food equipment, rails, exhausts, that pays the trade's best rates. | 12 | 30 | 90 | 0 |
| WLD204 | Fabrication Projects and JigsCraft becomes production: the learner builds real products, doors, windows, gates, furniture, tanks and trailers, and builds the jigs that make the second unit faster than the first. | 14 | 25 | 115 | 0 |
Semester 4
| Code | Module | CU | Contact h | Practical h | Industry h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLD205 | Plasma and CNC Profile CuttingThe shop's automation: computer guided plasma cutting from the CAD files of WLD106. The learner runs the machine, feeds it good files, and keeps hand skills for where machines cannot go. | 10 | 30 | 70 | 0 |
| WLD206 | Quality, Inspection and CodesThe module that turns a welder into a coded professional in waiting: standards, inspection, documentation and the certification landscape of the region's industrial projects. | 12 | 50 | 70 | 0 |
| WLD207 | Site Work and ErectionFabrication ends where erection begins: the learner works safely and productively on site, installing what the shop made, on the buildings and structures of a growing country. | 10 | 25 | 75 | 0 |
| ENT101 | Trade EntrepreneurshipHalf of Forward College graduates will employ themselves first. This module turns a trade into a business without romance: costs, customers, cash and compliance. | 6 | 25 | 20 | 0 |
| SPN102AI spine | Digital Work and Platform Income | 4 | 15 | 20 | 0 |
| ITR302 | Industrial Training TwoThe shortest module with the fastest payback: how a technician finds customers, prices work, invoices and gets paid through digital channels. | 20 | 0 | 10 | 180 |
| EXP301 | Exit Venture or Employment ProjectThe closing argument, specified in section 11: a fabrication venture trading or a complete client project delivered, defended in the oral examination room. | 12 | 15 | 90 | 0 |
The AI and Digital Practice Spine
AI, taught inside this trade
Applied Here The spine of Part Two, section 2.13, applied to fabrication: 12 credit units across SPN301 and SPN102, with the automation strand carried into WLD205 and the judgement strand into WLD206.
AI tools for my trade
AI assisted weld inspection used critically against the gauge; AI drafted quotes corrected from the learner's own shop data
Data in my trade
Consumable, time and defect logs; first time pass rates; quoting from measured reality
Working with automation
CAD files to the CNC plasma table; nesting optimisation; machine logs and consumable economics
Judgement, ethics and safety
No tool certifies a structural weld; honest quotation; refusing unsafe work
Digital work and platform income
Trade profile, digital quoting and mobile money for fabrication jobs, from SPN102
Learning outcomes
What the graduate can do
- PLO 1
Weld carbon steel joints by
Level 3: broad skilled task
- PLO 2
Weld by gas shielded wire processes for production and sheet work
Level 3: skilled operation of workplace processes
- PLO 3
Weld stainless and aluminium by TIG to hygienic and premium standards
Level 3: precision task performance
- PLO 4
Cut, form and machine steel with hand, power and machine tools to drawing
Level 3: operates equipment with responsibility for quality
- PLO 5
Read fabrication drawings and weld symbols and draft parts in CAD for CNC cutting
Level 3: interprets and produces workplace information
- PLO 6
Fabricate commercial products from plan to finish, using jigs for repeatability
Level 3: plans and completes whole tasks
- PLO 7
Inspect welds against written criteria and keep quality and traceability records
Level 3: quality responsibility within known methods
- PLO 8
Erect and install fabrications on site safely and to sign off
Level 3: field task performance with safety responsibility
- PLO 9
Apply hot work, gas and workshop safety without exception
Level 3: responsibility for safety of self and others
- PLO 10
Use the trade's AI, data and automation tools, verifying every output and keeping the sign off human
Level 3: uses workplace technology effectively
- PLO 11
Communicate, quote and keep records professionally
Level 3: communicates across familiar contexts
- PLO 12
Operate as a compliant self employed fabricator or productive employee
Level 3: works independently within scope
Entry routes
Four ways in
- Academic route. Uganda Certificate of Education; physical fitness for the trade; a pass in mathematics preferred.
- Vocational route. A relevant lower TVET certificate or completed metalwork course.
- Recognition of prior learning. Practising informal welders assess against the outcomes; the common result credits the manual arc and bench modules and the learner completes positional work, drawing, quality and the spine.
- Mature age route. Applicants of twenty five and above enter through the access assessment of literacy, numeracy and trade aptitude.
Industrial training
Assessed weeks inside a working organisation
- Duration and placement
- Ten weeks in year one (ITR301, 16 credit units, 150 hours minimum) and twelve weeks in year two (ITR302, 20 credit units, 180 hours minimum).
- Host organisation types
- Fabrication and structural steel companies, building contractors, vehicle body builders, furniture manufacturers, factory and estate maintenance departments, and the supply chains of the industrial corridor.
- Learning objectives
- Year one: production welding and bench work under supervision. Year two: positional and product work with increasing lead responsibility and a host project.
- Supervision
- A named host supervisor tradesperson; the practice tutor visits at least twice per placement; escalation within three days per the Part Two policy.
- Logbook
- Daily entries against the objectives, countersigned weekly by the host supervisor, reviewed by the practice tutor at each visit, kept on the platform.
- Assessment
- Joint workplace assessment against the practice rubric each year, plus logbooks
Assessment and certification
Continuous practical, plus UVTAB
A human assessor confirms every AI-avatar oral examination result before it stands, and the trainer who taught a learner never marks that learner's summative assessment.
- Internal continuous assessment, 60 per cent: workshop task assessments, module projects, logbooks and oral checkpoints, marked under the separation rule of Part Two.
- UVTAB external assessment, 40 per cent: the Board's written and practical occupational assessments for this qualification, taken at the gazetted sittings.
- Practical competency assessment: every practical outcome is assessed by observed performance against published criteria; evidence is retained.
- Oral examination option: any module checkpoint and the exit project defence may be taken in the AI avatar oral examination room, with human confirmation of every result.
- Grading scale: Distinction 80 to 100; Credit 65 to 79; Pass 50 to 64; Not Yet Competent below 50, with the right to reassessment.
- Pass and progression: every core module at Pass or above, all practical competencies demonstrated, industrial training completed, exit project at Pass or above.
- Resit rules: two reassessment opportunities per module without repeating attendance; a third attempt repeats the module; reassessment covers only the outcomes not yet demonstrated.
Exit project
A real venture, or a real employer brief
Venture route: launch a fabrication workshop or product line: the ENT101 demand study, registration, a live profile, one product line with at least five units sold and documented, and a twelve month cash plan.
Employment route: deliver a complete fabrication and erection project for a real or College sourced client, from drawing and quotation through fabrication, finishing, installation and signed handover, to employer standard, plus a passed mock trade test.
Deliverables:
The project file: drawings, cutting lists, quotation, and for the venture route the demand study and registration evidence The physical work: the products or installation, inspected against criteria The commercial record: invoices, payments and client sign off The defence: presentation and oral examination, human confirmed Grading criterion Weight What excellent looks like quality acceptance criteria first viability costs complete including Safety 15% Zero observed violations Production sense 10% Jigs, nesting and sequence Defence 10% Every decision explained
- The project file: drawings, cutting lists, quotation, and for the venture route the demand study and registration evidence
- The physical work: the products or installation, inspected against criteria
- The commercial record: invoices, payments and client sign off
- The defence: presentation and oral examination, human confirmed Grading criterion Weight What excellent looks like quality acceptance criteria first viability costs complete including Safety 15% Zero observed violations Production sense 10% Jigs, nesting and sequence Defence 10% Every decision explained
Progression
Where this qualification leads next
No Forward College learner ever meets a dead end.
Within Forward College: graduates enter FC-D04, the Diploma in Building Construction and Prefabrication Technology, or FC-H02's feeder diploma pathways in industrial maintenance, with cognate credits recognised; the year one standalone award stacks fully into the two year certificate.
Into Forward University: the staircase runs through the cognate diplomas and higher diplomas into the University's engineering degrees, with credit transfer of up to one third under the Part Two, section 2.12 equivalence tables.