Where a welder can go next

Table 1 · Within reach

• boilermaker 80% covered · difficulty 26.9
• spot welder 66% covered · difficulty 41.3
• oxy fuel burning machine operator 56% covered · difficulty 48.2
• riveter 54% covered · difficulty 44.7
• sheet metal worker 52% covered · difficulty 53.9
• abrasive blasting operator 51% covered · difficulty 50.7

Table 2 · A bigger jump

Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.

• electron beam welder 49% covered · difficulty 58.3
• ornamental metal worker 48% covered · difficulty 59.6
• laser beam welder 48% covered · difficulty 60
• tool and die maker 48% covered · difficulty 58.2
• rustproofer 48% covered · difficulty 56.9
• tumbling machine operator 46% covered · difficulty 55.1

Look up another occupation

welder is filed under Craft and related trades workers, ISCO major group 7. The full index lists all ten groups.

How these figures were compiled

Coverage is the share of the target role’s weighted skill requirement a welder already meets, counting required skills in full and supplementary ones at 0.35. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.