B-PROF is a European Grundtvig project, co-funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme.The welding sector currently has a glaring lack of qualified and certified personnel and, as welding is a transversal sector to such diverse areas as metalworking, oil&gas, automobile industry, telecommunications, etc. this lack of personnel has dire consequences.In fact, actual demand for qualified workers in the field easily surpasses supply and recent studies have shown that the shortage of welders in 2010 was in the order of 200 000. B-PROF will seek to address this issue by introducing an alternative system of certification that will allow workers with extensive unrecognized experience in welding to be reintroduced into the sector as fully qualified welders, with their qualifications updated and properly recognized.