Find a trade school that actually graduates people

Trade school is not the only route into a trade, and for several of these it is not even the main one. Before you borrow money, work through this:

1. Check the apprenticeship first. In electrical, plumbing, and the union trades, a registered apprenticeship pays you while you learn and credits the supervised hours your licence requires. If one is hiring in your area, it usually beats paying tuition for the same material.
2. Match the programme to your state's licence. Licensing is state-by-state and sometimes city-by-city. Ring the licensing board, ask exactly what they credit, and get the answer before you enrol.
3. Count the hands-on hours. Booth time, bench time, arc time, time on live equipment — that is the product. A programme that is mostly lecture is selling you the cheap part.
4. Ask where graduates went, by name. A school with real employer relationships will tell you which contractors hired last year's class. One that cannot is telling you something.
5. Compare the public option. Most schools in this directory are community colleges, and they are typically a fraction of the cost of a private programme teaching the same trade.

This directory is built from IPEDS 2024 — the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education's census of every institution that participates in federal student aid. We combine the institutional characteristics file with the completions file, keep every active school open to the public, and group its awarded programs into the trades above by their federal CIP codes. Each trade page lists the exact CIP codes folded into it, so the mapping is auditable rather than a judgement call you have to trust.

What that does and does not tell you:

• A school is listed because it graduated people in that trade in the reporting year — a stronger signal than advertising a program.
• Completion counts are a size signal, not a quality score. IPEDS does not measure teaching quality, so neither do we, and nothing here is ranked.
• It is a snapshot. Programs open and close between reporting years. Confirm with the school before you enrol.
• It is not exhaustive. Union apprenticeship programs, manufacturer training, and schools outside federal student aid do not appear in IPEDS at all — and for several trades those are the main route in.

Source: IPEDS, files HD2024 and C2024_A. Every listing carries its IPEDS UNITID so you can verify it at the source.