I've been trying to incorporate the NCCER's curriculum into my program for a very long time. The curriculum is very good. It can be mixed and matched to suit your curriculum needs. Although NCCER is in hope that you can use their product from start to finish that is not always convenient. Choose the manuals that fill your needs. You do not have to use them all.

The one problem that continues to come up is the price of the manuals. If I required my students to purchase every manual that I thought pertenant to this course the price would be prohibitive. Even trying to spread the cost over three semesters does not lessen the money impact.

Several instructors from this area have purchased the manuals and loan them to students. The students may order their own books if they so desire.

What I am now doing is offering other workbooks that cover the same materials, but at a substantially lower price. I use the "Wheels of Learning" for testing purposes. I offer a single workbook on Shielded Metal Arc welding that covers the same topics that it would take "Wheels of Learning" three to four manuals to cover. The "Wheels" manuals are excellent and the way they are set up allows for training on only one subject at a time. For instance, if you only train plate welding with backing you will need one manual. The rub comes if you try to cover many subjects, such as plate with backing, Vee groove, fillet, and or pipe such as I do. I have students that are new beginners mixed with students that may have been here close to a year.


If you overcome the pricing you will have a well thought out training devise. If I could find a way around the pricing I would have the full program.