Advanced Welder 2

Course Description

PMT0076C – Advanced Welder 2 is a 150-hour Postsecondary Adult Vocational (PSAV) course carrying zero credit hours; the clock hours carry the measurement. It sits within Florida's Advanced Welding Technology program (FLDOE program number J400410), the follow-on to the entry-level Welding Technology program.

Students reaching this course can already weld. Advanced Welder 2 is about the processes and positions that separate a production welder from a certified structural or pipe welder: gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW/TIG), advanced gas metal arc welding (GMAW/MIG) and flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), out-of-position work including overhead and vertical, pipe welding, and welding of materials beyond mild steel — stainless steel and aluminum in particular.

The course is heavily weighted toward booth time. Welding is a psychomotor skill, and competence comes from hours under the hood producing sound welds that survive inspection. Instruction is competency-based: students progress by demonstrating welds that pass visual and destructive testing against code criteria, typically drawn from AWS D1.1 (structural steel) and the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code for pipe work.

Offered at approximately 22 Florida institutions, predominantly district technical colleges — Lively, Manatee Technical, Traviss, Withlacoochee, Erwin, Ridge, Pinellas, North Florida, and peers — along with several state colleges with welding programs including Chipola, Daytona State, Florida Gateway, Hillsborough, Pensacola State, Pasco-Hernando, and Tallahassee State.

Florida demand is concentrated and real: shipbuilding and repair around Jacksonville and Tampa, aerospace fabrication on the Space Coast, power generation, structural steel for the state's continuous construction activity, and a very large marine and yacht industry along both coasts.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Perform gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) on carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum in multiple positions.
• Perform advanced gas metal arc welding (GMAW) including spray and pulsed transfer modes.
• Perform flux-cored arc welding (FCAW), self-shielded and gas-shielded.
• Produce sound welds in out-of-position work, including vertical and overhead.
• Perform pipe welding in fixed and rolled positions.
• Select correct filler metals, shielding gases, and machine parameters for a given base metal and joint.
• Interpret welding symbols, blueprints, and welding procedure specifications (WPS).
• Perform visual inspection and identify weld discontinuities and their causes.
• Apply corrective action to eliminate defects such as porosity, undercut, incomplete fusion, and cracking.
• Apply safety practices including PPE, ventilation, fire prevention, confined space awareness, and compressed gas handling.
• Prepare for and perform a welder qualification test to code criteria.

Optional Outcomes

• Perform thermal cutting operations including plasma arc and oxyfuel.
• Perform welding on specialty alloys beyond stainless and aluminum.
• Describe robotic and automated welding processes.
• Apply basic metallurgy to predict heat-affected zone behavior.
• Prepare for AWS certified welder testing at a designated Accredited Test Facility.
• Perform fabrication layout and fitting.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• GTAW/TIG — torch setup, tungsten selection and preparation, filler technique, and material-specific practice.
• Advanced GMAW — transfer modes, parameter selection, and shielding gas effects.
• FCAW — self-shielded and gas-shielded applications and electrode selection.
• Out-of-position welding — vertical up and down, horizontal, and overhead technique.
• Pipe welding — joint preparation, root pass, fill and cap, and 2G/5G/6G positions.
• Stainless steel and aluminum — material behavior, cleanliness requirements, and distortion control.
• Welding symbols and blueprint reading — interpreting drawings and WPS documents.
• Weld discontinuities and inspection — visual inspection, defect recognition, causes, and remedies.
• Codes and standards — AWS D1.1, ASME BPVC, and qualification requirements.
• Destructive and nondestructive testing — bend tests, and awareness of RT, UT, MT, and PT.
• Safety — PPE, fume and ventilation, fire watch, compressed gas, and electrical safety.
• Welder qualification testing — test preparation and performance to code.

Optional Topics

• Plasma arc and oxyfuel cutting.
• Robotic and automated welding.
• Basic welding metallurgy and heat treatment.
• Fabrication, layout, and fitting.
• Underwater and specialty welding awareness.
• Entrepreneurship and mobile welding operations.

Resources & Tools

• FLDOE Curriculum Framework, Advanced Welding Technology (J400410) — authoritative for standards and hours.
• Welding: Principles and Applications (Jeffus), Cengage — among the most widely adopted texts.
• Modern Welding (Althouse et al.), Goodheart-Willcox — a common alternative.
• AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code — Steel; ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section IX for pipe qualification.
• American Welding Society — certification pathways, Accredited Test Facilities, and SENSE program materials.
• Welding equipment — GTAW, GMAW, FCAW, and SMAW machines; welding booths; positioners; pipe stands; cutting equipment.
• Testing equipment — bend test fixtures, and access to nondestructive testing where available.
• OSHA welding, cutting, and brazing standards (29 CFR 1910 Subpart Q).
• SkillsUSA — the career and technical student organization for this program.

Career Pathways

• Welder, Cutter, Solderer, and Brazer (SOC 51-4121) — the core occupation.
• Structural Welder — commercial and industrial construction; steady work given Florida's construction volume.
• Pipe Welder / Pipefitter — power generation, process plants, and mechanical contracting; typically the highest-paid welding specialty.
• Shipyard Welder — Jacksonville's shipbuilding and repair sector, and Tampa's marine industry.
• Aerospace Welder — Space Coast fabrication, where GTAW on aluminum and exotic alloys is the relevant skill.
• Marine and Yacht Fabricator — Florida's large recreational marine industry, concentrated in Fort Lauderdale, Stuart, and Tampa Bay.
• Welding Inspector (with AWS CWI credential and experience) and Welding Instructor.

Special Information

Certification

Program completion is not certification. The industry credential is a welder qualification — a test performed to a specific code, position, process, and material, at an AWS Accredited Test Facility or under an employer's qualified procedure. Qualifications are narrow by design: a welder qualified for 3G GMAW on carbon steel is not thereby qualified for 6G GTAW on stainless. Many programs build test preparation into this course, and some are themselves Accredited Test Facilities. Verify locally, because it determines whether a student can test on site.

Course-code variation across Florida

Welding course numbering varies across districts, and the PMT prefix is used alongside others for similar content. Program totals and OCP boundaries differ between the entry-level Welding Technology program (J400400) and Advanced Welding Technology (J400410). Anyone evaluating a transcript should work from the actual course number and hour count rather than the title, since "Advanced Welder 2" appears with differing hours at different institutions.

Prerequisites

Entry is normally by progression: students complete the preceding OCPs in the welding sequence, including Advanced Welder 1, before this course. Program admission typically requires a TABE basic skills assessment. Because of the physical demands and shop hazards, programs commonly also have safety orientation and PPE requirements.

Articulation

This is clock-hour CTE and does not carry college credit or transfer as general education. Some Florida colleges award articulated credit toward an A.S. in Engineering Technology or a related program for completion plus industry certification, under local agreements rather than statewide SCNS equivalency. Confirm with the receiving institution.

Physical demands and consumables

Two practical notes for prospective students. The work is physically demanding — extended periods in awkward positions, heat, and heavy PPE — and Florida shops are hot. Second, students are generally expected to supply their own PPE (helmet, jacket, gloves, boots), and some programs charge consumables fees for filler metal and gas. Budget for both.