Welding schools in Texas
70 welding training programs in Texas, sourced from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and the AWS ATF Domestic Site Listing.
California Shipbuilding Corporation, Wilmington, CA, 1942. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI, public domain
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Texas trains more welders than any other state on this site
70 welding programs are on file for Texas, 49 public and 21 private. Median tuition across the 70 Texas programs reporting a figure runs $3,435, well under the $4,728 national median across 916 programs.
That median hides a wide spread. Lamar State College-Port Arthur in Port Arthur charges the least of any Texas program, $1,770. Universal Technical Institute-Dallas Fort Worth in Irving charges $56,200, a gap of more than 30x between the two ends of the table above. A community college certificate and a private technical institute program aren't the same purchase, and the price difference in Texas makes that plain.
Where the programs are
No single Texas city dominates the way it can in a smaller state. Houston carries the most at 4 programs, tied closely by El Paso at 4. 14 programs statewide host a co-located AWS Accredited Test Facility, meaning a student can test for AWS Certified Welder without leaving campus.
Texas also has more metro-level shop directories minted than any other state here: Arlington, TX, Austin, TX, Corpus Christi, TX, Dallas, TX, and 4 more below. If the goal is finding work rather than a classroom seat, those metro pages are the better starting point.
What welders earn in Texas
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates (SOC 51-4121), retrieved via api.bls.gov 2026-08-05 puts the median welder wage in Texas at $53,340 a year, above the $53,750 national median. That's a meaningful gap for a state that also trains this many welders; Texas isn't just producing volume, it's paying above the national line for the trade. How welder pay compares state to state has the fuller breakdown.