Shipyard Welding Training in Hampton Roads: Where to Learn

Hampton Roads is Virginia’s welding hub. The Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro employed 3,740 welders in May 2025, more than any other metro in the state, and its welders earned a median of $62,670 a year, or $30.13 an hour.

If you want to weld on ships, the good news is that you don’t have to leave the area to train for it. Two schools here put the word “maritime” right in their program names, and a community college in Portsmouth teaches pipe and fabrication at public tuition. This guide covers what each one teaches, how long it takes and where it can lead.

The Two Programs Named for Maritime Work

Most welding programs in Virginia are general: they teach the main processes and leave the industry up to you. Two schools in Hampton Roads go further and build a track around marine work.

Tidewater Tech-Trades, Norfolk

Tidewater Tech-Trades offers two programs: Combination Welding and Combination Maritime Welding. Full-time students can finish the first in 33 weeks and the maritime track in about 48 weeks. Both teach stick, MIG, TIG and flux-cored welding, pipe welding, cutting and blueprint reading.

It is the largest welding school in the state by output: it conferred 257 welding awards in 2024–25, the most of any Virginia school. Training takes place in an AWS Accredited Testing Facility, one of four in Virginia, so you test where you practice.

Best for: the fastest route into marine welding, if you can study full-time.

Advanced Technology Institute, Virginia Beach

Advanced Technology Institute offers a Maritime Welding Technology diploma of 1,200 clock hours (48 credit hours), about 15 months including breaks and holidays. It also offers an Associate in Occupational Science in Trades Leadership with a specialization in Maritime Welding Technology: 1,500 clock hours (60 credit hours), about 18 months.

Classes run five hours a day, four days a week, on various schedules. The program covers stick, MIG, TIG, flux-cored and pipe welding plus fabrication and blueprint reading, and you can earn AWS certifications up to 6G pipe, with testing on site during class hours. It conferred 71 welding awards in 2024–25.

Best for: pipe welding plus a degree that points toward leading a crew later.

Hampton Roads Welding Programs Side by Side

The private schools are faster and test on site. The community college is slower and costs much less per year. Which one fits depends on whether you can stop working while you train.

Tidewater Community College: The Public Route in Portsmouth

Tidewater Community College is the public option in Hampton Roads. It offers a 33-credit welding certificate over three semesters and an 18-credit Welding Essentials certificate over two. Its welding program lists pipe welding, oxy-fuel and plasma cutting, and fabrication and blueprint reading. It conferred 83 welding awards in 2024–25.

In-state tuition and fees for a full-time year were $5,588 in 2024–25, against $16,337 at Tidewater Tech-Trades and $14,568 at Advanced Technology Institute. For the full price breakdown, see how much welding school costs in Virginia.

Best for: you already have a job, want to keep it, and can take a year and a half to finish. Welding Essentials is also a way to test whether you like the trade before committing to the longer certificate.

Why Pipe and 6G Testing Matter for Ship Work

Pipe welding shows up in all three Hampton Roads programs, which is one reason Advanced Technology Institute’s offer of AWS testing up to 6G pipe is worth noticing. The 6G test puts the pipe at an angle and fixed in place, so you weld all the way around in every position.

You don’t need to pass 6G to get hired as a new welder, but it is the test that opens pipe work. If a school tests on site, you can take it while your instructor is still watching your technique. Read the welding certification guide for what each AWS test covers, and the pipe welder career page for what the job involves.

What Hampton Roads Pays Welders

Hampton Roads pays better than Virginia as a whole, and the gap is widest for new welders.

• Median: $62,670 in the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk metro, against $59,180 for Virginia and $53,750 nationally (May 2025).
• Lowest-paid tenth: $46,510 or less, the highest floor of any Virginia metro. Statewide the floor was $42,520.
• Top tenth: $78,180 or more.
• Hourly median: $30.13.

The floor is the number to watch if you’re new, because it is closer to what a first job pays. In Hampton Roads it sits well above both the state floor of $42,520 and the national floor of $39,240. For the full metro-by-metro picture, read what welders make in Virginia.

Where Maritime Welding Can Lead

Welding is a starting point. These are the paths that follow from it, with Virginia medians from BLS for May 2025:

• Structural welder and pipe welder: both fall under the welder occupation, with a Virginia median of $59,180.
• Welding supervisor: a Virginia median of $74,150, across 13,530 people in the broader supervisor group. Advanced Technology Institute’s trades leadership degree fits this step.
• Welding inspector: a Virginia median of $49,590. Inspection pays less than welding here, so it makes sense as a move later in a career rather than a first goal.
• Ironworker: a Virginia median of $60,260, for welders who want to work on structural steel ashore.
• Welding instructor: a Virginia median of $57,820, for experienced welders who want to teach.

If You Live Outside Hampton Roads

If Norfolk and Portsmouth are too far, the next public options sit inland. Brightpoint Community College in Chester, south of Richmond, offers a 30-credit welding certificate described as a one-year program and a 19-credit Career Studies Certificate, and students may earn AWS certifications. New River Community College in Dublin certifies its graduates in AWS D1.1 and ASME Section IX, two codes that matter for structural and pressure work.

See the Richmond welding schools page for the options around the capital.

Choosing Your Hampton Roads Program

• You want to be in a marine welding job within a year: Tidewater Tech-Trades’ Combination Maritime Welding, at about 48 weeks full-time.
• You want pipe certifications and a degree: Advanced Technology Institute’s maritime diploma or the AOS in Trades Leadership.
• You need to keep working: Tidewater Community College’s certificate over three semesters, or Welding Essentials over two.

Compare the schools on the Virginia Beach welding schools page, and if you live on the other side of the water, the Chesapeake and Hampton pages list what is closest. For every program in the state, start with the best welding schools in Virginia, and for the steps from first class to first job, see how to become a welder in Virginia.

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