Hello Kent, and thanks for the plug for community colleges and welding schools in general. I have intentionally tried to stay out of this particular thread as I believe that students, instructors, their administrators, their advisory committees, and a whole lot of other people determine the success of a particular program. In the end, if the students who have attended a program are finding gainful employment and "they" are satisfied with their training/schooling that is what counts. Down the road is where welder success is actually realized and that success has as much to do with the students as it does with where training was received, geographical area, local industries, and a whole host of other variables.

It is true that most of the state run schools are limited in their offerings. They are generally tied to specific educational models when you are discussing certificated and degree programs. However, a lot of those same facilities offer specific industry targeted training as well and are responsible for "tuning-up" a lot of the seasoned welders that are out there too. This can run the gamut as far as process and skill and for many of these it applies where you possibly have a seasoned welder with a lot of SMAW/FCAW/GMAW/GTAW skills or combinations of these and they are looking to learn more about some of the skills that they don't have so much experience with. Often times the very same training programs have customized offerings to address these scenarios.

Great schools can be associated with any type of training program, whether this be a high school, skills center, state run community/vocational/technical college, private welding school, or union training center isn't really the issue. Any facility that can consistently produce qualified entry level trades candidates or higher level specifically trained individuals would be considered a "great school" from my perspective.

To be truly accurate in coming up with lists of "great schools" would be a long and arduous task when a person is trying to be accurate and encompass complete information.

Well everyone, I guess that this is my contribution to this conversation. Best regards, Allan

Kent,
The union apprenticeship I went through taught GTAW(with and without pulsing), SMAW, FCAW, SAW, GMAW, OAW(why, I don't know), and oxy-acet and plasma cutting as well as providing basic math, and piping lay out. We worked with carbon steel, low alloy, and stainless steel materials. Occasionally some exotics when the school could get them.
We also had ample opportunity for on the job experiences as well as using all facilities on weekends and using all materials for free.
Of course, it still didn't make ME a welder worth a damn. But it did others a lot of good.
And shortly after I turned out they started offering PAW and orbital.