How to Pick the Best Welder Vocational School near Bethlehem Pennsylvania
Selecting the ideal welder vocational school near Bethlehem PA is an important first step to beginning your new occupation as a professional welder. But since there are a lot of schools to choose from, how do you determine which ones to consider? And more notably, once you have fine tuned your choices, how do you pick the best one? Many people start by looking at the schools that are nearest to their residences. Once they have found those that are within commuting distance, they gravitate toward the least expensive one. Yes, location and the cost of tuition are necessary concerns when examining welder vocational schools, but they are not the only ones. Other concerns include such things as reputation, accreditation and job placement rates. So before initiating your search for a vocational school to become a welder, it’s wise to establish a list of qualifications that your selected school must have. But before we examine our due diligence checklist, let’s talk a little bit about how to become a welder.
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Welder Certificate and Degree Programs
There are several options to get training as a welder in a trade or vocational school. You can obtain a diploma, a certificate or an Associate Degree. Bachelor Degrees are offered in Welding Engineering or Welding Technology, but are more advanced degrees than most journeyman welders will need. Some programs are also made available combined with an apprenticeship program. Following are brief summaries of the most common welding programs available in the Bethlehem PA area.
- Certificate and Diploma Programs are usually made available by trade and technical schools and take about one year to complete. They are more hands-on training in scope, fashioned mainly to develop welding skills. They can provide a good foundation for a new journeyman or apprentice welder, or supplemental skills for experienced welders.
- Associate Degree Programs will take two years to complete and are usually offered by community colleges. An Associate Degree in Welding Technology offers a more extensive education than the certificate or diploma while still furnishing the foundation that readies students to enter the workforce.
Many states and municipalities do have licensing requirements for welders, so make sure to check for your location of future employment. If required, the welder school you select should prep you for any licensing examinations that you will need to take in addition to providing the proper training to become a qualified welder.
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Welding Certification Options
There are multiple institutions that offer welder certifications, which assess the skill level and knowledge of those applying. Numerous Bethlehem PA employers not only require a degree or certificate from an accredited welding school, but also certification from a highly regarded organization like the American Welding Society (AWS). A wide range of certifications are available dependent on the kind of work that the welder performs. Just some of the skills that certification can attest to are the welder’s ability to
- Work in compliance with specific codes
- Work with specified metal thicknesses
- Work with various types of welds
- Work according to contract specifications
As already mentioned, many states, cities or local municipalities have licensing mandates for welders. Of those requiring licensing, a number also require certification for various kinds of work. Certification is also a means to demonstrate to employers that you are an exceptionally skilled and knowledgeable welder. So just as with licensing, look into the requirements for your location and make certain that the welding trade school you decide on preps you for certification if needed.
Topics to Ask Welder Trade Schools
Once you have decided on the credential you want to attain, a diploma, certificate or degree, you can start to assess schools. As you can imagine, there are a large number of welder trade and vocational schools in the Bethlehem PA area. That’s why it’s important to decide in advance what qualifications your school of choice must have. We have previously discussed 2 significant ones that many people look at first, which are location and tuition cost. As stated, although they are essential qualifications, they are not the only ones that need to be considered. After all, the school you select is going to provide the education that will be the foundation of your new vocation as a welder. So following are some additional factors you might need to evaluate before selecting a welding vocational school.
Accreditation. It’s very important that the welder tech school you select is accredited by either a regional or a national agency. There are 2 standard kinds of accreditation. The school may earn Institutional Accreditation based on all of their programs. Programmatic Accreditation is based on an individual program the school has, such as Welding Technology. So confirm that the program you select is accredited, not just the school alone. Additionally, the accreditation should be by a U.S. Department of Education recognized accrediting organization, such as the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology (ACCSCT). Besides helping ensure that you get a superior education, the accreditation may also assist in obtaining financial assistance or student loans, which are frequently not offered in Bethlehem PA for non-accredited schools. Finally, for those states or municipalities that mandate licensing, they may require that the welding training program be accredited as well.
Job Assistance and Apprenticeship Programs. A large number of welding diploma or degree programs are provided combined with an apprenticeship program. Some other schools will help place you in a job or an apprenticeship upon graduation. Find out if the schools you are looking at help in placing students in apprenticeships or have a job assistance program. The schools should have associations with local unions and various metal working businesses to which they can refer their students. More established schools may have a more substantial network of graduates that they can utilize for placements. These programs can help students find employment and develop relationships within the Bethlehem PA welding community.
Job Placement and Completion Rates. The completion rate is the percentage of students that start an instructional program and complete it. It’s crucial that the welder program you select has a high completion rate. A reduced rate may indicate that the students who joined the program were unhappy with the training, the teachers, or the facilities, and quit. The job placement rate is also a good indicator of the quality of training. A higher job placement rate will not only verify that the program has a good reputation within the field, but also that it has the network of Bethlehem PA employer relationships to assist students obtain employment or apprenticeships after graduation.
Modern Equipment and Facilities. Once you have narrowed down your selection of welding programs to two or three options, you should think out going to the campuses to evaluate their facilities. Confirm that both the equipment and the facilities that you will be trained on are up-to-date. Specifically, the training equipment should be similar to what you will be using on the job. If you are uncertain what to look for, and are already in an apprenticeship program, ask the master welder you are working under for guidance. Otherwise, ask a local Bethlehem PA welding contractor if they can give you some suggestions.
School Location. Even though we already briefly covered the relevance of location, there are a couple of additional points that we should cover. You should remember that unless you have the ability to relocate, the welding school you select must be within commuting distance of your Bethlehem PA home. If you do decide to enroll in an out-of-state school, besides relocation expenses there may be higher tuition fees for out-of-state residents. This is especially true for welder degree programs offered by community colleges. Additionally, if the school provides an apprenticeship or job placement program, more than likely their placements are within the school’s local community. So the location of the school should be in a region or state where you subsequently will desire to work.
Small Classes. Individualized training is important for a hands-on trade such as welding. It’s easy to get overlooked in larger classes and not get much one-on-one training. Find out what the usual class size is for the welding programs you are considering. Inquire if you can sit in on some classes so that you can witness how much personal attention the students are receiving. While there, speak with a few of the students and get their feedback. Similarly, chat with some of the instructors and find out what their welding experience has been and what certifications and credentials they hold.
Convenient Class Schedules. Some people learn a new trade while still employed at their present job. Make sure that the class schedules for the programs you are reviewing are convenient enough to satisfy your needs. If you can only go to classes at night or on weekends near Bethlehem PA, make sure that the schools you are reviewing offer those options. If you can only attend on a part-time basis, make sure that the school you decide on offers part-time enrollment. Also, find out what the policy is to make up classes should you miss any because of work, illness or family circumstances.
Online Welder Training Programs
Welding is very much a manual type of vocation, and for that reason not extremely compatible with online training. Even so, there are some online welding courses offered by certain community colleges and vocational schools in the greater Bethlehem PA area that may count toward a certificate or degree program. These classes primarily deal with such subjects as reading blueprints, safety,, and metallurgy. They can help provide a novice a foundation to initiate their education and training. Nevertheless, the most critical point is that you can’t learn how to weld or handle welding materials until you actually do it. Clearly that can’t be accomplished online. These skills must be learned in an on-campus setting or in an apprenticeship. Online or distance learning is more appropriate for seasoned welders that desire to advance their expertise or perhaps earn a more advanced degree. So if you should find an online welding degree or certificate program, be very cautious and verify that the larger part of the training is done on campus or in a workshop type of environment.
Top Night Schools for Welders Bethlehem PA
Picking the ideal welder school will probably be the most important decision you will make to begin your new trade. You originally stopped by our website because you had an interest in Top Night Schools for Welders and wanted more information on the topic Best Accredited Schools for Welders. However, as we have covered in this article, there are several factors that you will need to examine and compare between the schools you are looking at. It’s a prerequisite that any welder training that you are reviewing includes a lot of hands-on training. Classes should be smaller in size and each student should have their own welding machine to train with. Classroom instruction needs to offer a real-world perspective, and the course of study should be up-to-date and conform with industry standards. Programs differ in length and the kind of credential provided, so you will need to decide what length of program and credential will best serve your needs. Each training program offers unique options for certification also. Perhaps The ideal way to research your short list of schools is to visit each campus and talk with the students and instructors. Invest some time to monitor some classes. Tour the campus and facilities. Make certain that you are confident that the training program you pick is the best one for you. With the proper training, effort and commitment, the end result will be a new occupation as a professional welder in Bethlehem PA.
Other Pennsylvania Welder Locations
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley region of the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, and Scranton.[3] Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County, and 19,343 were in Lehigh County.
Bethlehem lies in the center of the Lehigh Valley, a region of 731 sq mi (1,890 km2) that is home to more than 800,000 people. Together with Allentown and Easton, the Valley embraces the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area, including Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon counties within Pennsylvania, and Warren County in the adjacent state of New Jersey. Smaller than Allentown but larger than Easton, Bethlehem is the Lehigh Valley's second most populous city. In turn, this metropolitan area comprises Pennsylvania's third-largest metropolitan area and the state's largest and most populous contribution to the greater New York City metropolitan area.
There are four general sections of the city: central Bethlehem, the south side, the east side, and the west side. Each of these sections blossomed at different times in the city's development and each contains areas recognized under the National Register of Historic Places. ZIP codes that use the address Bethlehem totaled 116,000 in population in the year 2000. These ZIP codes include Bethlehem Township and Hanover Township.
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