Welding teacher certification

[bchee]

I'm interested in welding class and found this thread.
http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55929

Seems like a lot of guys recommend going to class.

If I choose a class, what do I look for in the instructor to know that he is truly qualified to teach?

 

[Ozwelder]

Qualifications are important but can be useless if a teacher is lacking in experience and unable to effectively communicate with the students.

If you can, phone up the college or teacher and find out if they have a qualification (less important ) and what their level of experience is.

While I do have many qualifications in the Trade and degrees as a teaching, I usually identify myself as Boilermaker.

I firmly believe what is more important is to talk with your students to understand where they are coming from ,what they want to achieve and how you are going to help them get to where they want to be.

Cheers
Oz

 

[Stuart in MN]

The school may have short bios for the instructors in their class catalog. When I took a welding class, the instructor's bio said he had been a certified welder at a nuclear power plant for ten years, so I figured he probably knew a little bit.

 

[jay50]

The school may have short bios for the instructors in their class catalog. When I took a welding class, the instructor's bio said he had been a certified welder at a nuclear power plant for ten years, so I figured he probably knew a little bit.

Did you ask for proof of his work and certifications; bios= Bull $hit for many in the teaching professing....

 

[babzog]

My shop teacher last fall runs his own shop and has been teaching at the college for many years. Must be doing something right.

 

[filtered]

I just learned how to mig weld a week ago. A friend of mine came down gave me a 10 minute crash course, burnt some wire, and told me it looked good. Mig is really easy to do. My friend has never been certified but has welded for many years. I can't get my welds to break so I must be doing alright. They aren't perfect but they look pretty good.

I was going to take one of those classes, but i'd never put out the money for a tig welder or oxy acetylene welding set up. Mig is good enough for what I need to weld, might buy a cheap stick welder and see how that goes later on.

If you know someone with a welder ask them to show you, at least you'll know if you like it or not. I'm glad I didn't waste all that money on a class when I was able to learn the safety part online and how to weld from my friend. I ended up buying a mig welder with the money I was going to use on those classes.

 

[nismomans13]

i know a lot of welders with a lot of certifications that can't weld for ****. Just sayin, certs don't mean anything really. It just means you passed a test once.

 

[sberry]

I got to agree with some stuff here, welding schools can be a **** shoot. My first welding school had instructor that was a crappy welder but he knew a lot about the world of work. I was in a com college a while back where a lot was trial and error with practice, I coached a kid for a few mins and should have seen his eyes light up when someone explained a bit vs go try again. Look for somewhere with hands on teachers willing to demonstrate and can explain. Top schools like Lincoln and Hobart are good at this. Not everyone that owns a welder or has used one knows wtf. I will agree I have seen some crappy "certified" welders. One of the best welders I had in apprenticeship was really good although not much of a teacher.
I have worked with guys that had some experience with little formal training, my claim to fame in that dept is getting to the root of what they don't know and are doing wrong, I have had a lot of comments like,,, wish someone had shown me that 20 yrs ago. Lots of practice isn't worth a **** if its done wrong. I can usually spot guys with good training vs the learned it by practice method. Many learned well from others on the job. I ran across one a while back, 30 yrs, never did learn it right, would have thought in that time he would have asked someone that did,,, but no, they assume because they been doing it they been doing it right. Lots of mechanics and trades people in that boat.
Seen a young guy with very little experience that knew exactly what he was doing too, someone clued him in right off the bat.

 

[sberry]

Another thing, if your vision isn't absolutely great get some reading glasses or cheaters in your hood, almost impossible to teach someone that cant see well. Even poor coordination can be overcome but vision problems are difficult.

 

[londonsteve]

Go see the class look at his work, If you have even the tiniest bit of knowledge you can tell a good welder by his work. But not all great welders are great teachers. My teacher at college was a **** welder but a great teacher really made you understand the why's and reasons for a good weld and from the basics you pretty much teach yourself.

 

[kartracer55]

My instructor worked in the field for something like 25 years before he decided to "settle down" and teach. This was the guy who taught full time for the day students.

Not that welding can't be self taught, it is generally pretty scary when it is. The danger comes because average joe can go out and buy a little lincoln welder at a home improvement store, and before you know it, he's welding all sorts of crazy things to his truck frame to fit a larger lift kit or something, and now I'm on the road with that idiot. Id go so far as to guess that at least 50% of self taught mig-welders will be a danger to themselves or others around them at some point because of improper training.

I like to think that I have welded some pretty neat things...



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[toymn6366]

I was taught to weld by my grandpa that was a welder in the navy,out of four sons he had two that was certifed welders the other two coun't weld at all.

Funny store about teaching somebody to weld,one of my sons and his buddy came to the shop and wanted me to weld a piece for his buddys car seat.he told me that he knew how to weld but wanted me to weld it i had knew this kid since he was about 8 and was raised by his single mom so i asked who had taught him to weld.He said that he had seen me and some other people weld lots of times i told him that before i had *** the first time i had seen it done alot of times didn't mean i knew how.Then i taught him how to weld.

 

[Tantara]

I would take a class that was mostly lab time. I would also look at what type of equipment they have. Will you get to learn mig, tig, oxy acetylene, and plasma cutting. All you need from the teacher is to point you in the right direction practice will help you the most.


Brad

 

[Ben Iv]

ask around about where to go, our largest local school is tulsa welding school and of the guys out of there we have hired none of them were worth a damn. They promise these guys a starting salary of 50 grand for only 7 months of classes hell im the shop foreman and I dont make that...lol I think they are more of a buisness than a school they are more in it for the money than giving an education. But you get from it what you take from it so it depends on what there is to take/learn.

 

[ZRX61]

My Tig instructor welded *stuff* on NASA's Airborne Lazer project..

 

[bdkruger1]

Go to an AWS meeting for your local chapter. You'll probably meet an instructor or two, some welders perhaps, and most likely some inspectors ( CWI's ). Talk to them and see what they have to say. I'm a CWI and I know the CWE- Certified Welding Educator, is very similar to the CWI exam. I think if I had paid some extra dough when I sat for my CWI, they would have given me the CWE at the same time. Basically what I'm getting at is that if a person is a CWE, it's safe to assume that they know their stuff.


And I'm not being an elitist you guys, so dont go there! I know that there are welders and instructors out there with no certs that are fanatastic!