Welding
Welding
Your weldsget tested.Not graded.
Learn stick, MIG, flux-cored, and TIG, plus cutting and blueprint reading. You'll test for American Welding Society qualifications, where your weld gets cut apart and bent until it fails or it doesn't.
$53,750 median
What welders earn nationally. The top 10% earn more than $77,530, and process and industry drive most of that gap.
2 Years
Junior and senior year. A senior-only option is available, but you'll miss a full year of hood time and credential prep.
No Tuition
Lab fees are typically a few hundred dollars. Payment plans are available.
College Credit
Earn college credit toward a degree while you are still in high school.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers, May 2025 wage data. The lowest 10% earned less than $39,240. What you weld and who you weld it for matters as much as how long you have been doing it.
Credentials You Can Earn
Each of these is earned by passing the test. We get you ready. The rest is your hands.
AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY
Three Qualifications
- SMAW — stick
- FCAW — flux-cored
- GTAW — TIG
OPERATOR CERTIFICATION
Forklift Operation
- Load handling and stability
- Capacity limits and load charts
- Pre-use inspection
- Safe operation around people
- Hands-on evaluation
An AWS welding qualification is not a written test. You run a weld, it gets cut into strips, and those strips get bent until the weld either holds or cracks. Nobody can talk their way through that, which is exactly why a shop trusts it. You will also learn MIG, which most shops run every day, even though the qualification list here covers stick, flux-cored, and TIG.
Four Processes. Then Pick Your Lane.
Most welders make their living on one or two processes. You'll learn four, plus cutting and prints, so you leave knowing which one you're actually good at and where the work is.
- Shop safety and hand and power tools
- Thermal cutting with oxyfuel and plasma
- SMAW, stick welding
- GMAW, MIG welding
- FCAW, flux-cored welding
- GTAW, TIG welding
- Blueprints and welding symbols
In the shopMore than 50 welding booths running Miller machines, Hobart curriculum, and the same cutters, torches, and gear the major shops around here use. Enough booths that you are welding, not waiting your turn.
Why WCCC
You get hood time
Welding is not something you understand by being told. It is a physical skill, built one bead at a time, and the only thing that produces it is hours under the hood. Two years here is a lot of hours.
Keep your home school
You're still part of your home high school. Graduate with your class, and keep playing sports, going to prom, and showing up for homecoming.
Steady demand
About 40,300 welding openings are projected each year through 2035. The field itself is growing slowly, around 2%, so nearly all of those openings come from welders retiring or moving on. The trade is aging, and shops are looking for people to replace them.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 projections.Where This Can Lead
This program is a head start, not the finish line. When you graduate, you'll have real options:
Start working
Welder or fabricator in manufacturing, structural steel, pipe, or a local fab shop
Keep training
Employer training, technical school, or an apprenticeship if you land one
Keep building
More qualifications and specialty work: pipe, aerospace, inspection, or your own shop
Applications open December 2.
See the shop before you apply.