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Trade schools · 904 schools

🔥 Welding & Metal Fabrication Schools

Welding is the most-awarded trade credential in the country, and the training is unusually concrete: you learn processes — stick, MIG, TIG, flux-core — and then you weld to a qualified procedure until your coupons pass. What matters at the end is not the certificate but which position and process you can pass a test in.

How people actually get in

Welding has the shortest realistic path from zero to employable of any trade here, often months rather than years. Certification is to a specific procedure and position and is maintained by continuity of work, so it lapses if you stop. Structural, pipe, and pressure work pay very differently — pipe welding is where the ceiling is.

Ask before you enrol

  • Ask how much arc time per week you actually get. Booth hours are the whole product.
  • Find out which AWS or ASME tests you will be prepared for and whether testing is included.
  • Check whether the school tests you to a procedure or only hands you a completion certificate — employers care about the former.
Largest programs

Where the most people graduate

By credentials awarded in the reporting year. That is a size signal, not a quality ranking — big programs are easier to get into and easier to get lost in.

Every school, by state

All 904 welding & metal fabrication schools

Alabama 19

Alaska 5

Arizona 15

Arkansas 26

California 70

Colorado 16

Connecticut 3

Delaware 1

Florida 50

Georgia 24

Hawaii 2

Idaho 7

Illinois 42

Indiana 3

Iowa 16

Kansas 25

Kentucky 17

Louisiana 12

Maine 5

Maryland 2

Massachusetts 1

Michigan 29

Minnesota 20

Mississippi 15

Missouri 17

Montana 11

Nebraska 6

Nevada 4

New Hampshire 3

New Jersey 6

New Mexico 15

New York 11

North Carolina 59

North Dakota 7

Ohio 50

Oklahoma 30

Oregon 15

Pennsylvania 37

South Carolina 16

South Dakota 3

Tennessee 27

Texas 72

Utah 11

Vermont 1

Virginia 19

Washington 22

West Virginia 13

Wisconsin 17

Wyoming 7

Other trades

⚡ Electrical❄️ HVAC & Refrigeration🔧 Plumbing & Pipefitting🪚 Carpentry🧱 Masonry & Concrete🏗️ Construction Technology & Management🎨 Finishing Trades & Roofing🛠️ Building Maintenance & Inspection⚙️ Machining & CNC🔩 Industrial & Electrical Maintenance📟 Appliance, Security & Electronics Repair🚗 Automotive & Collision Repair🚜 Diesel & Heavy Equipment🪵 Woodworking & Cabinetmaking

CIP codes folded into this page: 48.0508, 48.0509, 48.0511, 48.0506. Source: IPEDS, US Department of Education.

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