Where Can You Take Night Welding Classes in Houston?
Alvin Community College, south of Houston, offers evening welding classes, and Tulsa Welding School-Houston runs morning, afternoon and evening classes at its Houston campus. Houston Community College offers its 24-credit-hour Welding Automation certificate in a hybrid format. If you need small steps, Brazosport College in Lake Jackson has 9- and 11-credit-hour Occupational Skills Awards, and San Jacinto College in Pasadena has a 12-credit-hour TIG skills award.
If you work days in Houston, you have two ways to learn to weld without quitting: take classes in the evening, or take a program small enough to fit in the hours you have. Two Houston-area schools publish evening welding classes. Several others offer short awards or a hybrid option that make part-time training more realistic.
Here is what each school says about its schedule, and how to pick one when your day job is not going anywhere.
Houston-Area Schools That Fit Around Work
This table lists what each school publishes about its schedule or format, plus its smallest welding award. A blank schedule cell means the school lists its program without a set time of day.
| School | City | Schedule or format | Smallest welding award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alvin Community College | Alvin | Evening classes available | CERT1, 19 credit hours |
| Tulsa Welding School-Houston | Houston | Morning, afternoon and evening classes | Professional Welder diploma, 7 months |
| Houston Community College | Houston | Welding Automation certificate also offered hybrid | Structural or Automation certificate, 24 credit hours |
| Brazosport College | Lake Jackson | Welding Helper award, 9 credit hours | |
| San Jacinto College | Pasadena | TIG Welder Skills Award, 12 credit hours | |
| College of the Mainland | Texas City | In person, full-time schedule | Entry Level certificate, 24 credit hours |
| Universal Technical Institute | Houston | Welding Technology, 9 months |
For every program in the metro, including ones not listed here, see the Houston welding schools page.
Alvin Community College: Evening Classes and a Pipe Test
Alvin is the Houston-area community college that says outright it has evening welding classes. That makes it the first call for most people with a day job south of the city, from Pearland to Alvin itself.
Its awards stack. The CERT1 certificate is 19 credit hours, CERT2 is 45 and the AAS is 60, so you can stop after the first and go back later. The college says students can earn NCCER credentials and an AWS ASME IX 6G pipe certification along the way, which is unusual for a program you can take at night.
For a district resident, tuition and fees were $1,906 for a full-time year in 2024–25. The college lists approximate in-district tuition and fees for the whole CERT1 at $1,986. Books and supplies ran $2,104 a year. Alvin conferred 35 welding awards in 2024–25, so it is a small program.
Best for: someone south of Houston who wants a pipe test and a low price, and can give a few evenings a week.
Tulsa Welding School-Houston: The Fastest Evening Diploma
Tulsa Welding School runs morning, afternoon and evening classes at its Houston campus. It is a private school built around full-time diplomas rather than a college semester calendar:
- Professional Welder: 7 months
- Welding Specialist with Pipefitting: 9.5 months
- AAS in Welding Inspection and Quality Management: 14 months
The school teaches stick, MIG, TIG, flux-cored and pipe welding, plus inspection and testing, and says it prepares students for job interviews and weld tests. It conferred 1,087 welding awards in 2024–25, more than any other school in Texas.
Best for: someone who wants to finish in under a year, has evenings free most nights of the week, and cares more about speed than the lowest price.
Houston Colleges You Can Take a Piece at a Time
If you cannot commit to a set of evenings, a short award may work better than a night program.
Houston Community College offers its 24-credit-hour Welding Automation certificate in a hybrid format as well as in person. It also has a 24-credit-hour Structural Welding Certificate and a 36-credit-hour Combination Pipe Welding Certificate. HCC conferred 239 welding awards in 2024–25.
Brazosport College in Lake Jackson has the smallest awards near Houston: Occupational Skills Awards for Welding Helper (9 credit hours), Welding Technician (11) and Welding Fabricator (11). Its Basic Certificate is 16 credit hours. Brazosport also had the highest institution-wide graduation rate among Houston-area public colleges: 56% for its Fall 2018 cohort.
San Jacinto College in Pasadena is the largest community college program near Houston, with 534 welding awards in 2024–25. Its GTAW (TIG) Welder Skills Award is 12 credit hours, and a 24-credit-hour Combination Welder Certificate follows.
Lee College in Baytown and Lone Star College in Cypress round out the metro. Lee College offers a Welding Inspection certificate that ends with Certified Welding Inspector exam preparation, a good next step once you are working.
College of the Mainland in Texas City is the one to skip if you cannot quit your job: it runs welding in person on a full-time schedule. The next start date is listed as 8/20/26.
What Evening Programs Look Like Elsewhere in Texas
Houston schools publish less detail about evening hours than some programs elsewhere in the state. Those programs are a useful guide to what to expect, and to what to ask a Houston school:
- Evening takes longer. M T Training Center in DeSoto runs the same 1,210-clock-hour program in 35 weeks by day or 49 weeks in the evening, Monday through Friday.
- Short nights, short blocks. Navarro College’s Welding on Wheels program in Waxahachie meets 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, in 8-week blocks.
- Weekends are an option. Collin College in Allen runs full-time weekend cohorts on Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 4:50 p.m.
- Day and night in one school. Texas State Technical College offers in-person or hybrid welding with day and night options.
If a Houston program says it has evening classes, ask the same things: which nights, what hours, and how many weeks longer than the day track.
How to Train Around a Day Job
A welding lab is not a class you can catch up on from home. These habits make the difference:
- Count the drive. A 6 p.m. start in Pasadena or Baytown is a long day if you work across town. Pick the campus closest to your job, not your home, if that is where you will be at 5 p.m.
- Start with the smallest award. A 9- to 19-credit-hour award (Brazosport, Alvin) proves you can keep the pace before you sign up for a full degree.
- Plan for gear. Books and supplies ran from $1,020 a year at Brazosport to $2,550 at Lone Star College in 2024–25, on top of tuition.
- Ask about aid for part-time study. Many aid programs have part-time rules. Start with the financial aid guide for welding students.
Before you enroll, confirm three things in writing: the nights and hours, the total length at that pace, and which tests you can take before you finish.
Where Night Training Leads in Houston
Houston is the biggest welding job market in Texas. The metro had 15,850 welding jobs in May 2025, with a median of $57,940 a year ($27.86 an hour), above the Texas median of $53,340. The bottom tenth earned $38,480 or less, a fair guide to a first job.
If you want pipe work, compare the Houston options in pipe welding training in Texas and read the pipe welder career guide. For the general path, see the welder career overview, and for prices across the state, what welding school costs in Texas. To compare schools on quality, start with the best welding schools in Texas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Finish a Welding Diploma at Night in Houston?
Tulsa Welding School-Houston runs evening classes at its Houston campus. Its Professional Welder diploma is listed at 7 months and its Welding Specialist with Pipefitting diploma at 9.5 months.
Does Houston Community College Have Evening Welding Classes?
Houston Community College lists its Welding Automation certificate (24 credit hours) as also available in a hybrid format. Its other welding awards are a 36-credit-hour Combination Pipe Welding Certificate, a 24-credit-hour Structural Welding Certificate and a 60-credit-hour AAS.
Is College of the Mainland a Good Choice if You Work Full Time?
It is a harder fit. College of the Mainland in Texas City runs its welding program in person on a full-time schedule, with the next apply date listed as 3/10/26 and the next start date as 8/20/26.
What Do Welders Earn in the Houston Area?
Welders in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro earned a median of $57,940 a year, or $27.86 an hour, in May 2025. The metro had 15,850 welding jobs, the most in Texas.
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