If you prefer working with your hands and building things over sitting in an office then a career in welding may just be right for you. In this blog post, I have curated a list of the best welding schools in San Antonio to give you different options on where to study and learn professional technical skills as a welder.
Welding is a technical skill, that is, it mostly uses your hands. Welding is a fabrication process used on metals, thermoplastics, and wood to join their parts together using both heat and pressure. Those with this skill are called welders and they are required across industries, especially in construction.
For every piece of machinery from bicycles to airplanes and ships to cars, a welder has a hand in it. If you love building things with your hands, welding is a career that you may want to consider going into. There are schools that offer training in welding, you can find them, apply for them, and kick-start your journey into the field.
Schools that mostly offer such technical skills are usually trade schools and they concentrate on providing you with hands-on skills and experience over theory. If you can’t afford trade school to learn to weld, you can apply for apprenticeships, they are much cheaper and will also ground you in the field.
However, before venturing into the field, I’d advise that you “test the waters” before going into it by simply taking some online welding courses to be sure it is a career you’re going to like.
Having said that, this blog post will guide those who want to pursue welding careers in San Antonio, Texas. I have curated the list of the best welding schools in San Antonio to help you make a choice on where you will learn quality welding skills. Without any further ado, let’s dive in.
Best Welding Schools In San Antonio
The following are the best welding schools in San Antonio:
- St. Philip’s College
- Southern Careers Institute
- South Texas Vocational Institute
- Career & Technical Education Center
- Mt. Saint Antonio College
1. St. Philip’s College
St. Philip’s College is an accredited public historically black community college in San Antonio, Texas that serves the educational needs of over 11,000 students in the area. The college offers more than 70 different academic and technical disciplines with welding being one of them. You can either earn an Associate of Applied Science or a certification in welding at St. Philip’s College.
St. Philip’s Department of Allied Construction Trades offers a Welder/Welding Technologist program that offers students extensive skills through shop activities on industrial welding equipment such as SMAW, GMAW, GTAW, and FCAW. These sets of skills prepare students for opportunities in shipbuilding, steel construction sites, oil field operations, manufacturing shops, etc.
2. Southern Careers Institute
Here is another trade school in San Antonio that offers quality technical skills in welding. It is also made available in other parts of Texas; Austin, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Pharr, and Waco. The welding program at SCI is designed to equip learners with the knowledge and skills required to join the Texas workforce in industrial, commercial, and small business environments.
Students are taught the different types of welding; GMAW, FCAW, GTAW, and so on. It takes only 7 months to complete the training and earn your certification as a qualified welder.
3. South Texas Vocational Institute
South Texas Vocational Institute is another great option to learn hands-on welding skills through its Combination Welding program and prepare you for a career in construction and maintenance. If you are also in Corpus Christi and Weslaco, the institution has outreach campuses there where you can enroll for the program.
Students will gain hands-on skills in CNC cutting, safe equipment use, position padding, flat and horizontal welds, plasma arc cutting, and many more. At the end of the program, students earn certifications as proof of their expertise in welding.
4. Career & Technical Education Center
The welding program at Career & Education Center is for high school students in grades 9 through 12 who have an interest in welding. The program is designed to prepare them for entry-level roles in welding when they graduate high school. Students in this program gain knowledge and skills in oxyfuel cutting and welding, tool usage, gas metal arc welding, and stick metal arc welding.
The program is free of charge for high school students and takes 2-4 years to complete. Students can continue with the program even after high school to gain further professional skills.
5. Mt. Saint Antonio College
Last but not least on our list of best welding schools in San Antonio is Mt. Saint Antonio College. The institution provides a Welding Technology Program with degrees and certificates to prepare students for careers in welding. This program is hands-on focused, the curriculum is designed with 1 hour of lecture time and 3-6 hours of hands-on laboratory exercises.
You can either go for the Associate of Science degree or one of the four academic certificates in the welding program. The cost of the welding A.S. degree at Mt. Saint Antonio College is $2,760 for in-state and $20,040 for out-of-state.
These are the schools in San Antonio that offer welding programs and will train you to become a professional in the field. Entry into the programs is easy and requires that you are above 18 years old and completed high school or have your GED when applying for the program.