Underwater Welding School

When looking for the best underwater welding schools in California, it is important to point out that you must first become a commercial diver.  NUPI’s underwater welding course is embedded in the commercial diving program allowing all of our students to participate in the welding course without having to pay extra for the specialty.  This is a highly specialized course designed to prepare students to obtain high-quality Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) skills both above and below the water line.  The course follows the guidelines in accordance with AWS D3.6M 2010 standards.  The training is designed to equip students with the skills necessary to produce high-quality fillet welds.  You will be introduced to all the relevant theory associated with the SMAW welding process, together with relevant safe working practices.  This course emphasizes the performance of high quality, defect-free, wet welds by the student while preparing the student diver/welder to obtain a (3F) vertical welder certification in accordance with the testing and acceptance criteria of AWS D3.6 class B fillet welds.

The course takes place during the last 4 weeks of the commercial diving school and is intended to train professional divers up to the standard required to pass a Welder Performance Qualification (WPQ) to AWS D3.6 Code for Underwater Welding of class ‘B’ welds.

Upon completion, students will receive:  Certification of Completion in Underwater Welding to the standards set by the American Welding Society.

Underwater Welding Salary

Just as surface welders are expected to perform many duties besides just welding, commercial divers only perform underwater welding about 5 – 10% of the time. In fact, the longer you stay in the diving field, the more diversified your skills become and the less you’ll perform one specific task. Underwater welder is a specialty and, if you are really good, you can get an underwater welder job. Underwater welding salary is pretty much the same as what you would expect with a commercial diving salary. To find out more about underwater welder salary and commercial diver salary, check out the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website located here: BLS Commercial Divers

Watch a Student Underwater Welding Video