CWBi Acorn

CWBi AcornWelcome to something new in trades education…

What is CWBi Acorn?

CWBi Acorn is a new national initiative to provide standardized training, testing, assessment, credentials and recruiting at a national level. It can best be thought of as a flexible learning platform that can be easily adopted on its own, or adapted to fit within existing training initiatives. It is intended to be national program with a prime goal of providing world-class training material and support programs in a fully uniform, transparent and accountable fashion. It will be centrally administered and managed through CWB Groups’ CWB Institute (CWBi) on behalf of industry, educators and students who want to support the program.

Administered directly through the CWB Institute, CWBi Acorn and its associated programs and / assessment are run fully independently of the activities of the Canadian Welding Bureau, and associated company certification and welder qualification processes.

Taking action now -

CWBi Acorn has been developed around an aggressive schedule to meet the needs of industry. With the average age of welders now approaching 60 it was felt that action was needed now – and the CWB Group, through its CWB Institute, had the resources and knowledge to develop what was needed - quickly.

In the first year (2015) CWBi Acorn will provide support for high school and pre-employment programs geared specifically for welding and weld inspection. In the second year CWBi Acorn will expand to provide support for all common trades within the welding and joining industry. By year 3 (2017) CWBi Acorn will provide a complete resource for any school that wants to deliver a fully modern and up-to-date welding related program.

Overview Brochures

Acorn - Connecting Education and IndustryAcorn Assessments

See the current CWBi Acorn roadmap

Acorn Roadmap

An on-going evolution -

Everything needs a starting point. The CWB Institute has taken the lead and has developed and rolled out all the core materials, services and processes for the foundations needed to deliver a national initiative like CWBi Acorn. Moving forward, CWBi Acorn is intended to be an on-going initiative influenced and driven by the national needs of industry and those employed within it. As such, all development costs will be borne by the CWB Institute, with on-going costs being offset through a low-cost licensing model. Currently the CWB Institute has invested over 2 million dollars of its own funds to kick-start the initiative.

What’s Inside CWBi Acorn -

CWBi Acorn is comprised of 4 key services, supporting 7 key deliverables:

Key system components of the CWBi Acorn Initiative:

  • CWBi AcornCore – Centralized training content administration and licensing
  • CWBi AcornOnline – Online learning delivery and testing support for CWBi Acorn
  • CWBi AcornMobile – “In-hand” augmented learning for student
  • CWBi AcornConnect – CWBi Acorn Assessment, skills-matching and recruiting portal

Key CWBi Acorn deliverable:

Get Connected –

For more information about CWBi Acorn and how it can support your needs contact the CWBi Acorn Support Team

For information on signing up for CWBi Acorn for high Schools within Canada contact the CWA Foundation, our high school delivery partner

For information on signing up for CWBi Acorn for Post secondary and private career colleges contact CWBi Acorn Sales

Already delivering CWBi Acorn and looking for support? Click here