How to Become a Welder

LearnHowToBecome Team

Lyss Welding

Nov 22, 2022

When you think about a welder, y'all might imagine sparks flying into their face shield as they torch machine parts. Welders do work with their hands in extreme conditions, but they besides spend time studying blueprints and learning about various metals' properties and welding techniques.

According to the U.S. Agency of Labor Statistics (BLS), welders earned an boilerplate bacon of $46,690 in 2022. But, welders can increase their pay significantly past expanding their versatility and investing in continued educational activity and training.

What Does a Welder Practise?

Career Basics

Welders use torches, drills, electrodes, and fifty-fifty robotic arms to fuse metals, building or repairing structures. They piece of work on structure sites, railways, automobiles, shipping, and industrial pipelines.

Welding requires expert knowledge of tools, procedures, and safety precautions. Most welders complete formal training through a vocational program and hands-on learning in an apprenticeship.

Steps to Becoming a Welder

Welding wears on your body, and a lucrative welding career will require significant initiative and commitment to ongoing learning and credentialing. Before you commit, make certain it'southward something you want for the long term. Y'all tin:

  • Read industry news, such equally The Fabricator.
  • Mind to podcasts like Weld Midweek, where real welders share their expertise and experiences.
  • Talk to a welding instructor at a community college about their program and paths after graduation.

These activities can help yous determine what it'due south like to be a welder and how to shape your career path in this diverse field.

Step two

Enroll in a Vocational or Postsecondary Education Programme

You can start your welding training as early on as loftier school. Here are some pathways:

  • If you lot're still in high school: See if your school has a welding or manufacturing career grooming program — or if yous can enroll in local community college courses. Yous tin can larn to weld and develop belittling, mathematical, and engineering skills necessary in a welding career.
  • If you've graduated from high school: Consider getting a welding certificate, diploma, or acquaintance degree. Some employers don't crave them, merely postsecondary welding programs teach many types of welding, which tin can aid y'all in your career. You lot can complete one of these programs in as footling as three months and up to ii years. They range in price from around $5,000 to $xv,000.
  • If you're no longer in school, but you don't have a high school diploma or equivalent: Get-go studying for your GED credential to testify schools and employers your foundational noesis of math and scientific discipline, which is helpful in welding. You lot may demand a GED to apply to welding schools. Depending on your country, you lot can consummate the GED tests in a few months for $80 to $140.

Step 3

Discover an Apprenticeship

You can first an apprenticeship after completing your high school vocational training or to supplement a certificate or diploma plan. Welding apprenticeships terminal 4 to five years.

During your apprenticeship, your employer-sponsor will pay you for your piece of work — but non much. Welding apprentice salaries averaged $20,000 a year, according to Payscale.com.

You tin find apprenticeships through welding unions, similar your local chapter of the United Association, and government websites, such as Apprenticeship.gov.

Footstep 4

Become a Certified Welder

The American Welding Guild (AWS) oversees the AWS Certified Welder program. You lot tin go certified in many unlike types of welding. These certifications show employers yous know your stuff, and they can qualify you for college-paid piece of work.

The AWS offers 19 certifications for welders, preparing them for dissimilar types of welding like:

  • MIG welding
  • Automobile welding
  • Construction and repair work
  • Shipbuilding
  • Pipeline welding
  • Manufacturing
  • Welding wind-exposed structures

Technically, certified welder tests don't have prerequisites. Still, the exams will rigorously test your knowledge of a specified codebook. You will too need to produce a high-quality weld. And then, it'southward best to have the exam afterwards completing some educational activity and on-the-chore skills grooming.

To become an AWS-certified welder, you need to pay the $50 application fee. Each certification examination has a testing fee of a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the exam.

Step 5

Consider Joining a Union

  • Unions tin connect you to an apprenticeship, where you tin train with professionals.
  • Unions may provide training opportunities for little to no cost.
  • You don't have to expect for work on your own since the matrimony finds and assigns jobs to you.
  • You have certain protected rights, like safe working weather.
  • You tin can admission member benefits, similar a pension program.
  • Y'all may need to complete up to v years as an apprentice earlier earning college wages.
  • Y'all accept less pick on your jobs.
  • You lot have less individual control over your working rate and hours.

Co-ordinate to the BLS, 63% of welders work in manufacturing. With additional certifications and by building years of experience, y'all can country a niche role in welding, such as building bridges, securing gas pipelines, and repairing offshore oil rigs.

Welder Salaries and Task Growth

Data from the U.South. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Projections Primal, a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website.

Top five areas with the highest average welder salary:

  1. Alaska: $71,860
  2. Virgin Islands: $65,960
  3. Hawaii: $65,650
  4. District of Columbia: $64,270
  5. Wyoming: $59,800

Top x areas with the highest job growth:

  1. Virgin Islands: 50%
  2. Utah: 27.5%
  3. Idaho: 27.two%
  4. Guam: 26.3%
  5. Washington, D.C.: 25%
  6. Nevada: 20.9%
  7. Colorado: xvi.9%
  8. Georgia: 15.eight%
  9. Arizona: 15.1%
  10. Oregon: xiii.8%

Career Paths for Welders

A career in welding can open opportunities for advancing your education or pursuing a more entrepreneurial path. Below, we've listed some options. You lot can learn more than virtually the pay for each role in our salary guide for welders.

Rig Welder (Self-Employed)

Like truck drivers, rig welders travel across the country for work. This path allows you to gain incredible income but requires you to relocate for several months at a time. And while you lot may receive a relocation bonus, you demand to provide your own tools, gear, and living arrangements.

If yous're considering contract welding versus shop welding, talk to professionals who have done both.

Certified Welding Educator (CWE)

CWEs are instructors in welding programs and serve every bit mentors to welding students and apprentices. You need at least 5 years of welding experience to take the AWS CWE exam.

Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)

Welding inspectors monitor welders' piece of work to ensure information technology's high-quality and upwards to code. The necessary years of experience depend on your education level. For example, if yous have a bachelor's degree, you demand i year of feel. If yous take a high school diploma, y'all need five years of experience.

Certified Welding Supervisor

Welding supervisors manage welding teams and aid them improve quality, safety, and productivity. You will need a high school diploma or equivalent and at to the lowest degree two years of welding experience to get an AWS-certified welding supervisor.

Certified Welding Engineer (CWEng)

Welding engineers work with welders, supervisors, and inspectors to create and acquit out blueprints co-ordinate to code. They're also knowledgeable about the math, chemistry, and physics behind welding plans and procedures.

To authorize to have the AWS CWEng test, you demand a sure level of education and experience. Yous can:

  • Accept a available's degree in engineering with at least one yr of welding experience.
  • Have an acquaintance degree with at to the lowest degree 10 years of experience.
  • Have a high schoolhouse diploma or GED credential with at least 15 years of experience.

Pro Tips on Becoming a Welder

Jason Becker, B.S.C.M. CWI, CWE

Jason Becker, B.S.C.Thousand. CWI, CWE

Jason Becker has 24 years of welding experience, including four years in the Marine Corps, welding on military vehicles and equipment. Today, he'southward the welding program manager at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. He likewise hosts Arc Junkies, a podcast dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of welders.

Why is welding ane of the most important skilled trades?

If y'all think virtually it, welding has impacted but about everything yous interact with on a daily basis. The bridge y'all cross to become to work, the vehicle you take to get there, computers, desks, everything in an office edifice — all these things had to be congenital initially, and dissimilar types of welding were used in that procedure.

What are the skills or qualities that make someone a good fit for welding?

Welding takes physical and mental stamina. Physically, we bargain with less-than-desirable working weather every day. There's farthermost estrus, heavy-duty equipment, and all the PPE and rubber gear we need to wear, which is as well cumbersome.

Mentally, it takes a lot of patience and problem-solving. You won't always take the materials you need, so you'll demand to modify what you have. You need to read blueprints and understand how to interpret a 2D cartoon into real life. When reality doesn't lucifer the prints, you demand to adapt. Yous demand to plan the sequence of operations and answer: What'southward the best type of filler for this job? How are yous going to go along material from warping in the oestrus? Overall, welding takes difficult work, piece of work ethic, and the ability to suit to difficult situations.

How tin someone decide on an didactics path to go a welder?

Really, it depends on what kind of welding you lot desire to do. Some people know right away that they desire to be a pipeline welder or to work on automobiles, for instance. If you know the path you desire to have, you tin notice schools that specify in those areas.

What's your advice to anyone considering the career?

Larn every facet of welding that yous can. Learn every single process: stick, MIG, TIG, flux-cored. Learn structural welding, learn piping welding — and never stop. That way, no matter where you go, you will never exist out of the job.

The more I learn about welding, the more I realize I don't know anything about welding. For me, it'southward a constant, ongoing search for noesis. And that'due south the coolest affair — there is e'er something new to research and larn.

Related Careers

If you like the idea of welding just want to evaluate your options, consider these like occupations:

  • Civil engineers plan structure for bridges and other major infrastructure projects.
  • Mechanics and automobile technicians repair, maintain, and solve electric problems on cars.
  • Contractors and construction managers build on their experience in a trade such equally welding to manage construction projects from start to stop.
  • Pipefitters share many of the aforementioned tasks as pipeline welders. They build and repair pipes carrying liquid or gas.

You can acquire about your career options and find the jobs that fit you best by taking the Lantern Career Involvement Quiz.

Getting Financial Assist with Your Welding Program

Scholarships for Welding Programs

The AWS Foundation Welder Training Scholarship

  • Who qualifies: Welding students pursuing a certificate program at a community college or other trade or grooming school.
  • Amount: Upward to $i,000
  • Deadline: Rolling

AWS Foundation Welding Educator Scholarships

  • Who qualifies: Total- and office-time welding educators in pursuit of connected educational activity
  • Corporeality: $2,500-$4,500
  • Borderline: Apr 1, annually

AirProducts Women of Gases and Welding Scholarship

  • Who qualifies: Women enrolled in a two- or four-year welding degree program with at least a 2.5 GPA.
  • Amount: $2,500
  • Borderline: Date TBD for 2022

Federal Grants for Welding Programs

Federal Pell Grant

  • Who qualifies: Find out what kind of funding you lot can receive by completing the Gratuitous Application for Federal Pupil Aid (FAFSA®).
  • Amount: Varies. In the 2022-2022 school yr, the maximum amount was $half dozen,495.
  • Deadline: June 30, annually

Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant

  • Who qualifies: Decide if yous're eligible by completing the FAFSA.
  • Amount: $400-$1000, depending on your financial need
  • Deadline: June xxx, annually

GI Bill Benefits

  • Who qualifies: If you served in the U.S. military, the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs website tells y'all whether you qualify for benefits via the Postal service-9/11 GI Bill or Montgomery GI Bills.
  • Important information: Many career welders began working in the military, joining parts for vehicles and mechanism, earlier completing a 2-year or four-twelvemonth degree.

FAQs

How long does it take to become a welder?

Welding grooming varies widely. The shortest preparation programs final simply a couple of months, but it may take years to hone your craft. Certificate programs for welders last almost a twelvemonth, and acquaintance degrees last about two years. In addition, many welders complete iv- to five-year apprenticeships.

Do I need to become to school to go a welder?

Most welders either complete a certificate program, associate degree, or at least some coursework to gear up for certification. You lot can find these programs in:

  • High school vocational programs
  • Community colleges
  • Other career training centers
Practise welders make proficient money?

As a welder, your pay depends on your experience and the type of work the job calls for. Below are some figures to give you a sense of welder bacon ranges. Y'all tin likewise consult our welding bacon guide.

  • The highest-paid welders make six-figure salaries. They use rarer welding techniques and may travel the country, working on special projects.
  • Welders fresh out of welding schools may brand $fifteen an hour.
  • On average, welders in the U.South. make $22.45 an hr or $46,690 a twelvemonth, according to the BLS.
Is welding certification worth information technology?

Past earning welding certifications, you can open more doors for yourself. AWS certifications bespeak to potential employers that you take learned and demonstrated a specific welding technique. This means that you lot authorize for more jobs (and more niche, higher-paying ones).

How much does welding certification cost?

To become an AWS-certified welder, you demand to pay a $fifty awarding fee. Then, every half dozen months, you must pay a maintenance fee of $25. Each certified welder examination you take also comes with a fee, which may be up to a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the exam and your testing facility.

Latest Posts

LearnHowToBecome.com is an advertizing-supported site. Featured or trusted partner programs and all school search, finder, or match results are for schools that compensate u.s.. This compensation does non influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent data published on this site.

View the most relevant programs for your interests and compare them past tuition, acceptance rate, and other factors important to yous.