Blueprint Reading for Welders Unit 1 Review a
How to Become a Welder
Lyss Welding
November 22, 2021
When you think about a welder, you might imagine sparks flying into their confront shield as they torch auto parts. Welders do work with their hands in extreme conditions, but they also spend time studying blueprints and learning about various metals' backdrop and welding techniques.
According to the U.Southward. Agency of Labor Statistics (BLS), welders earned an average salary of $46,690 in 2020. Merely, welders tin can increment their pay significantly by expanding their versatility and investing in connected education and training.
What Does a Welder Do?
Career Nuts
Welders use torches, drills, electrodes, and even robotic arms to fuse metals, edifice or repairing structures. They work on construction sites, railways, automobiles, aircraft, 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 meaning initiative and commitment to ongoing learning and credentialing. Before yous commit, make certain it'south something yous desire for the long term. You can:
- Read industry news, such every bit The Fabricator.
- Mind to podcasts like Weld Wednesday, where real welders share their expertise and experiences.
- Talk to a welding instructor at a community college near their program and paths subsequently graduation.
These activities tin aid you lot decide what it'southward similar to exist a welder and how to shape your career path in this diverse field.
Footstep 2
Enroll in a Vocational or Postsecondary Teaching Program
Yous tin start your welding preparation as early as high school. Here are some pathways:
- If you're still in high school: See if your schoolhouse has a welding or manufacturing career training program — or if you can enroll in local community higher courses. You can learn to weld and develop analytical, mathematical, and engineering skills necessary in a welding career.
- If yous've graduated from high school: Consider getting a welding document, diploma, or associate degree. Some employers don't require them, but postsecondary welding programs teach many types of welding, which can help you in your career. You tin can consummate 1 of these programs in every bit picayune as iii months and up to 2 years. They range in cost from around $5,000 to $15,000.
- If you're no longer in schoolhouse, but you don't take a loftier school diploma or equivalent: Start studying for your GED credential to show schools and employers your foundational noesis of math and science, which is helpful in welding. Yous may demand a GED to apply to welding schools. Depending on your state, y'all tin complete the GED tests in a few months for $eighty to $140.
Footstep 3
Detect an Apprenticeship
You lot can start an apprenticeship later on completing your high school vocational grooming or to supplement a certificate or diploma programme. Welding apprenticeships concluding four to five years.
During your apprenticeship, your employer-sponsor will pay you for your piece of work — only non much. Welding apprentice salaries averaged $20,000 a year, co-ordinate to Payscale.com.
You can find apprenticeships through welding unions, like your local chapter of the United Clan, and government websites, such every bit Apprenticeship.gov.
Step four
Go a Certified Welder
The American Welding Society (AWS) oversees the AWS Certified Welder program. You can become certified in many different types of welding. These certifications evidence employers you lot know your stuff, and they can authorize yous for college-paid work.
The AWS offers 19 certifications for welders, preparing them for different types of welding like:
- MIG welding
- Car welding
- Construction and repair work
- Shipbuilding
- Pipeline welding
- Manufacturing
- Welding wind-exposed structures
Technically, certified welder tests don't take prerequisites. Notwithstanding, the exams volition rigorously test your knowledge of a specified codebook. You will also demand to produce a high-quality weld. So, it'southward all-time to take the exam after completing some education and on-the-job skills training.
To go an AWS-certified welder, yous need to pay the $fifty application fee. Each certification exam has a testing fee of a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the test.
Step 5
Consider Joining a Union
- Unions can connect you to an apprenticeship, where you lot tin can train with professionals.
- Unions may provide grooming opportunities for piddling to no cost.
- You don't accept to look for work on your ain since the union finds and assigns jobs to you lot.
- You take certain protected rights, similar safe working conditions.
- Yous can admission fellow member benefits, similar a pension plan.
- Yous may need to complete up to five years as an amateur before earning higher wages.
- You take less choice on your jobs.
- You 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, you tin can land a niche function in welding, such as building bridges, securing gas pipelines, and repairing offshore oil rigs.
Welder Salaries and Job Growth
Data from the U.S. Agency of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Projections Cardinal, a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website.
Superlative five areas with the highest average welder salary:
- Alaska: $71,860
- Virgin Islands: $65,960
- Hawaii: $65,650
- District of Columbia: $64,270
- Wyoming: $59,800
Superlative x areas with the highest job growth:
- Virgin Islands: 50%
- Utah: 27.5%
- Idaho: 27.2%
- Guam: 26.3%
- Washington, D.C.: 25%
- Nevada: 20.9%
- Colorado: xvi.9%
- Georgia: fifteen.8%
- Arizona: 15.ane%
- Oregon: 13.viii%
Career Paths for Welders
A career in welding tin open opportunities for advancing your education or pursuing a more than entrepreneurial path. Below, we've listed some options. You can larn more than about the pay for each function in our salary guide for welders.
Rig Welder (Self-Employed)
Like truck drivers, rig welders travel across the state for work. This path allows you lot to gain incredible income but requires you to relocate for several months at a fourth dimension. And while yous may receive a relocation bonus, you need to provide your own tools, gear, and living arrangements.
If you're because contract welding versus shop welding, talk to professionals who accept washed both.
Certified Welding Educator (CWE)
Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)
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 most the math, chemistry, and physics behind welding plans and procedures.
To qualify to take the AWS CWEng test, you demand a certain level of education and feel. You can:
- Have a available's degree in applied science with at least one year of welding feel.
- Have an associate degree with at least x years of feel.
- Have a high school diploma or GED credential with at to the lowest degree 15 years of feel.
Pro Tips on Becoming a Welder
Jason Becker, B.Southward.C.M. CWI, CWE
Jason Becker has 24 years of welding experience, including four years in the Marine Corps, welding on armed forces vehicles and equipment. Today, he's the welding program director at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. He also hosts Arc Junkies, a podcast dedicated to educating and inspiring the next generation of welders.
If you recall about it, welding has impacted just well-nigh everything you interact with on a daily ground. The span you lot cantankerous to become to piece of work, the vehicle you take to go at that place, computers, desks, everything in an office building — all these things had to exist built initially, and different types of welding were used in that process.
Welding takes concrete and mental stamina. Physically, we bargain with less-than-desirable working atmospheric condition every day. There'southward extreme heat, heavy-duty equipment, and all the PPE and safety gear we need to wear, which is also cumbersome.
Mentally, it takes a lot of patience and trouble-solving. You won't always take the materials you lot need, so you'll demand to modify what you take. You need to read blueprints and empathize how to translate a 2nd drawing into real life. When reality doesn't match the prints, you need to adjust. You need to plan the sequence of operations and answer: What's the best type of filler for this job? How are you going to go on fabric from warping in the heat? Overall, welding takes hard piece of work, work ethic, and the ability to adjust to difficult situations.
Really, information technology depends on what kind of welding you lot desire to do. Some people know right away that they want to be a pipeline welder or to work on automobiles, for instance. If you know the path you lot want to have, you can find schools that specify in those areas.
Learn every facet of welding that you can. Learn every single process: stick, MIG, TIG, flux-cored. Learn structural welding, learn piping welding — and never stop. That way, no matter where y'all go, y'all will never exist out of the job.
The more than I larn most welding, the more I realize I don't know anything about welding. For me, it's a constant, ongoing search for knowledge. And that's the coolest thing — at that place is always something new to research and learn.
Related Careers
If yous like the idea of welding but want to evaluate your options, consider these similar occupations:
- Civil engineers plan construction for bridges and other major infrastructure projects.
- Mechanics and machine technicians repair, maintain, and solve electrical bug on cars.
- Contractors and structure managers build on their feel in a merchandise such equally welding to manage construction projects from showtime to finish.
- Pipefitters share many of the aforementioned tasks as pipeline welders. They build and repair pipes carrying liquid or gas.
You can learn virtually your career options and find the jobs that fit you best by taking the Lantern Career Involvement Quiz.
Getting Fiscal Assistance with Your Welding Program
Scholarships for Welding Programs
The AWS Foundation Welder Preparation Scholarship
- Who qualifies: Welding students pursuing a certificate program at a community college or other trade or training school.
- Amount: Up to $1,000
- Deadline: Rolling
AWS Foundation Welding Educator Scholarships
- Who qualifies: Full- and function-fourth dimension welding educators in pursuit of continued education
- Amount: $2,500-$iv,500
- Deadline: April 1, annually
AirProducts Women of Gases and Welding Scholarship
- Who qualifies: Women enrolled in a two- or four-year welding degree program with at to the lowest degree a 2.5 GPA.
- Amount: $ii,500
- Deadline: Date TBD for 2022
Federal Grants for Welding Programs
Federal Pell Grant
- Who qualifies: Observe out what kind of funding y'all tin can receive by completing the Free Awarding for Federal Student Help (FAFSA®).
- Amount: Varies. In the 2021-2022 school yr, the maximum amount was $6,495.
- Deadline: June 30, annually
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant
- Who qualifies: Determine if you're eligible by completing the FAFSA.
- Amount: $400-$yard, depending on your financial need
- Borderline: June 30, annually
GI Beak Benefits
- Who qualifies: If yous served in the U.S. military, the U.Due south. Section of Veteran's Affairs website tells y'all whether you qualify for benefits via the Mail-9/11 GI Neb or Montgomery GI Bills.
- Important information: Many career welders began working in the military, joining parts for vehicles and machinery, before completing a two-year or iv-year degree.
FAQs
Welding training varies widely. The shortest training programs concluding only a couple of months, but it may have years to hone your arts and crafts. Certificate programs for welders last well-nigh a year, and associate degrees last about two years. In improver, many welders complete 4- to five-year apprenticeships.
Nigh welders either complete a certificate plan, associate degree, or at least some coursework to set for certification. You can find these programs in:
- High schoolhouse vocational programs
- Community colleges
- Other career training centers
As a welder, your pay depends on your experience and the type of work the task calls for. Beneath are some figures to give you a sense of welder salary ranges. Yous can also consult our welding bacon guide.
- The highest-paid welders make half-dozen-figure salaries. They utilise rarer welding techniques and may travel the country, working on special projects.
- Welders fresh out of welding schools may make $15 an hour.
- On average, welders in the U.Due south. make $22.45 an 60 minutes or $46,690 a year, according to the BLS.
Past earning welding certifications, y'all tin open up more than doors for yourself. AWS certifications signal to potential employers that you have learned and demonstrated a specific welding technique. This means that you qualify for more jobs (and more niche, higher-paying ones).
To become an AWS-certified welder, you need to pay a $50 application fee. So, every half dozen months, you lot must pay a maintenance fee of $25. Each certified welder examination you take likewise comes with a fee, which may be upwards to a couple of hundred dollars, depending on the test and your testing facility.
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