Hello Dustin, your choices for upgrading are fairly substantial. The private schools can generally provide the quickest and most intense training to advance you rapidly, they also generally have top-notch instructors with very good skills that they can pass on. As you may also find out they aren't inexpensive, the time-frame and skills that they can provide to you will have a price, you have to decide as to whether these skills and turn-around times are worth the price.
You mentioned community college, you can possibly group technical colleges and skills centers into this group too. I believe in many instances you can receive very good training from these facilities. The trick with these is to do a bit of investigation to determine the types of programs that are available and to also check with the employers that they generally provide employees to to determine their levels of satisfaction and whether the training was adequate. If you are willing to take a bit more time and not wanting to break the bank in the process this path might serve your purpose very well.
One additional consideration here is to consider joining one of the unions and utilizing their apprenticeship programs to receive the schooling and additional training that they have to offer. In this case you will hire on and go to work at a slightly reduced rate of pay, at the same time you will receive training and schooling that is provided throught the union at basically very little cost to you. As you progress through the apprenticeship program you will receive pay raises and other benefits until you have reached journeyman status. The time for this to occur will vary from union to union and I believe also has a lot to do with hours logged and certain other variables. These are just a few options for you to consider and investigate. Best of luck to you, aevald
dusmcbro,
are you looking to add to your welding abilities by learning SMAW, GTAW and OAW? If so i can say from experience that CC is not really a bad way to go and it saves alot of $ money going that way. It will serve you greatly to do as "aevald" has advised. Look into your local Community College and see what their cirriculum is like. See if you can get a tour of the facility and ask questions of the instructor about his teaching methods.
Night clases are pretty convenient if you work days. it may not be the fastest way to improve your welding abilities, but it will improve your welding skills beyond MIG.
respectfully, Jeffrey S. Grady
As others have stated, community college can be an inexpensive way to gain the skills and certification. Maricopa has a large program, and although their tuition is higher than other CC's in the state, it is bound to be lower than trade schools. Thomas Spangler is the contact: THOMAS.SPAENGLER@GWMAIL.MARICOPA.EDU. Good luck!
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