META24 WORKFORCE LAB · GRADED TO THE CORE · PROJECT-BASED · WELDING · THE LAB'S YEAR · MIDDLE SCHOOL · UPPER SCHOOL · GRADE 6–12 · 1 CREDIT · AWS SENSE LEVEL 1
Welding · the year
YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real · in YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real
Blueprint · cut & inspect · stick · wire · TIG · the test camp — the lane ends in AWS SENSE Level 1
This year is laid from the lab’s own calendar — every course inside the lab end to end, then its floors — not written quarter by quarter. The weeks are the lab’s; the quarter windows are the catalog’s.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
TECHNOLOGY & TRADESMATHSCIENCEART & DESIGNREADING & WRITINGBUSINESS & ENTERPRISECODING & AI
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Read weld blueprints + symbols
- Run stick, wire (MIG), and TIG beads
- Test toward AWS SENSE Level 1
AT A GLANCE · 36 WEEKS
Q1 Blueprint → Cut & Inspect — A qualified test weld
Q2 Stick (SMAW) → Wire (GMAW + FCAW) — A cut-and-inspect report
Q3 Wire (GMAW + FCAW) → TIG (GTAW) — A qualified test weld
Q4 TIG (GTAW) → The Test Camp — A cut-and-inspect report
THE COURSES INSIDE THIS LAB · 6
THE ROOMS · 7 · BEHIND LOGIN
Semester 1
WEEKS 1–18 · QUARTERS 1 AND 2Quarter 1 · Blueprint → Cut & Inspect
WEEKS 1–9 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1What to Learn FirstBLUEPRINT
Ask the internet “what should a beginner learn first?” and everyone argues about processes. Joe’s answer cuts through all of it: don’t start with a process at all.
WK 2Flux-Core, Hands-On
Week 1 was the plan. Week 2 is the first real arc. Joe takes students outside to run flux-core — because that’s where flux-core lives — and coaches them by feel and by sound, one bead at a time.
WK 3Flux-Core, Flat Position
A student’s real first day on flat. Joe isn’t chasing fancy positions yet — he’s building the one habit that makes everything after it easier: follow the toe of the last bead, hold your distance, and let the sound tell…
WK 4Oxyfuel CuttingCUT & INSPECT
Oxyfuel doesn’t melt steel — it burns it. A preheat flame gets the steel glowing, then a jet of pure oxygen sets it on fire and blows the burning metal out of the cut.
WK 5Plasma Cutting
Where oxyfuel burns steel, plasma melts and blows — with a jet of superheated, electrically charged gas hot as the surface of the sun.
WK 6Gouging & Joint Prep
A great weld starts before you strike an arc — with how the joint is cut, beveled, and fit together. This week is joint preparation: gouging out bad metal, beveling for penetration, and the fit-up that decides whether a…
WK 7Blueprints & Weld Symbols
A welder who can’t read a print is guessing. The weld symbol is a compact language that tells you exactly what weld to make, where, how big, and what shape — all in a few marks. This week you learn to read it fluently.
WK 8Inspect Like a CWI
This is the whole course pointed back at the weld: learning to judge it the way a Certified Welding Inspector does.
WK 9The Cut & Inspect Capstone
The complete fabrication loop in one make: cut the metal, bevel and fit the joint, read the weld symbol, weld it, then inspect and defend the result to code.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A qualified test weld
The question. Can you read weld blueprints + symbols?
The make. A qualified test weld
The evidence. Handed in through YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 2 · Stick (SMAW) → Wire (GMAW + FCAW)
WEEKS 10–18THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 10The Machine & PolaritySTICK (SMAW)
Before a single arc, you own the machine. Stick welding is the oldest arc process and the most portable — but it only works if you understand the circuit you’re standing inside and which way the electricity is flowing.
WK 11Striking & Holding the Arc
Everyone can strike an arc for a second. The skill — the one that separates a welder from a beginner — is holding a steady, correct arc length for the length of a whole rod. This week is nothing but that.
WK 12The Stringer Bead, Flat
Now you run beads on purpose. Flat position, stringer beads, one after another — building the four things you control at once: angle, arc length, travel speed, and a straight line.
WK 13The Rods & the Rod Locker
A stick welder is only as good as their rod knowledge. The number stamped on the flux — E7018, E6010 — is a full spec: strength, position, polarity, and personality.
WK 14Fillets & the Weave
Most welds in the world are fillet welds. This week you learn the joint that pays the bills — the fillet — how it’s measured, how it fails, and how a weave fills a bigger one without burning through.
WK 15Vertical Up
This is where welders are separated from the rest. Turn the joint vertical and gravity stops helping and starts pulling your molten puddle straight down. This week is the technique that beats it.
WK 16Overhead & Horizontal
The hardest position welds molten metal over your head with gravity trying to pour it onto you. Plus horizontal, where the puddle wants to sag off the top plate.
WK 17The Stick Capstone
Everything from eight weeks in one make: set the machine, pick the rod, run a sound weld in a real position, then inspect and defend it the way an employer would. This is your stick proof.
WK 18The Wire Machine & CVWIRE (GMAW + FCAW)
Stick made your hand the wire feeder. MIG hands that job to a motor and a spool. The trade: it feeds wire at a set speed forever, and the machine manages arc length for you — so you can go faster and focus on where the…
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A cut-and-inspect report
The question. Can you run stick, wire (MIG), and TIG beads?
The make. A cut-and-inspect report
The evidence. Handed in through YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Semester 2
WEEKS 19–36 · QUARTERS 3 AND 4Quarter 3 · Wire (GMAW + FCAW) → TIG (GTAW)
WEEKS 19–27THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 19Shielding GasWIRE (GMAW + FCAW)
The gas is not an accessory — it’s half the process. It decides your penetration, your spatter, your bead shape, and whether your weld has holes in it. Lose the gas and MIG stops working.
WK 20Voltage & Wire Speed
MIG has essentially two knobs, and every good MIG weld is those two in balance. Voltage and wire speed. Get their relationship and you can dial in any MIG machine on any metal by reading the bead and the sound.
WK 21Transfer Modes
The wire has to get from the tip to the puddle somehow — and there are four different ways it crosses the arc. Which one you’re in decides your penetration, your spatter, your speed, and whether you can weld thin metal…
WK 22Running MIG
Now you run real MIG beads. It feels easy — the machine does so much — which is exactly the trap. This week is the technique that turns MIG’s ease into sound welds instead of pretty ones that fall apart.
WK 23Flux-Core (FCAW)
Flux-core is MIG’s tough outdoor cousin — the process Joe took the students outside to run in the Blueprint. It puts the flux inside the wire, so wind can’t kill it, and it’s one of the two processes on the structural…
WK 24Defects & Out of Position
Wire welding is fast, which means it makes defects fast too. This week names the wire-specific defects, their causes, and their fixes — then takes MIG and flux-core off the flat and up the wall, where the puddle wants…
WK 25The Wire Capstone
Everything from eight weeks in one make: dial in the machine, pick the process and mode, run a bead that’s fused — not just pretty — then inspect it for wire’s signature defects and defend it honestly.
WK 26The Machine & Two HandsTIG (GTAW)
TIG is the opposite of MIG. Nothing is automatic. One hand holds the torch, the other feeds filler, and a foot pedal rides the heat — three things at once.
WK 27The Tungsten
Everything in TIG starts at the tip of the tungsten. The type you pick, how you grind it, how you protect it — these decide your arc before you ever strike it.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A qualified test weld
The question. Can you test toward AWS SENSE Level 1?
The make. A qualified test weld
The evidence. Handed in through YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 4 · TIG (GTAW) → The Test Camp
WEEKS 28–36THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 28Gas, Cup & Gas LensTIG (GTAW)
TIG has no flux and no forgiving margin — the inert gas is the only thing protecting a puddle (and a hot tungsten) that will ruin instantly if air touches it. Gas coverage in TIG is life-or-death for the weld.
WK 29Polarity & the Current
Why can TIG weld both steel and aluminum, when aluminum has an invisible oxide skin that melts at three times the metal’s temperature? The answer is the current type.
WK 30The Puddle, the Dip & the Cup
This is the week your hands learn the dance. Form a puddle, dab filler into its front edge, move, repeat — a rhythm as steady as a heartbeat.
WK 31Carbon & Stainless
TIG on steel is where precision meets the metals that carry the world’s food, medicine, and pressure. Stainless especially is unforgiving — too much heat destroys the very corrosion resistance you’re welding for.
WK 32Aluminum — the Hard One
Joe called aluminum the reason TIG is the hard one — and shipped this course “aluminum included.” It fights you three ways: an oxide that won’t melt, a metal that drinks heat then suddenly collapses, and no color change…
WK 33The TIG Capstone
Everything in eight weeks converges into one make: pick the metal, the tungsten, the gas, the current; run the dab-and-move with total control; produce a clean, fused, un-collapsed weld; then inspect and defend it.
WK 34The Credential — WPS, PQR & WPQTHE TEST CAMP
Before you weld a test, you have to understand what a welding certification actually is — and it’s not a diploma. It’s a document that says you welded a specific joint, a specific way, and it passed.
WK 35The Test Positions — 3G & 4G
Test Camp targets two positions on purpose: 3G vertical and 4G overhead. Together they’re the hardest plate positions — and passing both certifies you for every position on plate.
WK 36The Test Plate — Prep & Fit
Half of passing the test happens before you strike an arc. The test coupon has to be beveled, gapped, aligned, and tacked exactly to the WPS — because a sound weld on a badly prepped plate is impossible.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A cut-and-inspect report
The question. Can you read weld blueprints + symbols?
The make. A cut-and-inspect report
The evidence. Handed in through YWC Welding Courses · Weld for Real’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes Welding · the year and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.