Build and repair pressure vessels — a small-footprint trade tied to industrial power and refining

Boilermaking is one of the most specialized heavy-industrial trades in the CIP catalog. The program prepares students to fabricate, install, and repair steam boilers, pressure vessels, and other heavy steel structures that contain high-temperature and high-pressure fluids — equipment that powers electrical generation, refineries, pulp mills, and shipyards. The curriculum is dense with code-driven practice: students work through arc and gas welding, riveting and sealing, pipefitting, pressure testing, material selection, and the applicable ASME and jurisdictional standards. Blueprint reading and shop math wrap around every unit of instruction.

The footprint inside higher education is small by design. Only 1 college in the IPEDS data — Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana — reports completions, with 10 associate awards in the most recent cycle. The trade is overwhelmingly entered through the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) apprenticeship model rather than a college program, so the associate's degree is an alternative on-ramp rather than a gatekeeper. Students who pick this major tend to treat it as a head start on welding certifications and pressure-vessel code familiarity before entering the apprenticeship system.

The primary career destination is boilermaker (BLS SOC 47-2011), with a median wage of $73,340 — meaningfully above what most CC-entry trades pay. The field lists high-school diploma as typical entry education, not an associate's, which is consistent with the apprenticeship pathway dominating hiring. Projected job growth is -2.4%, but that headline understates the opportunity: the workforce is aging rapidly, power-plant and refinery maintenance cycles are steady, and travel-turnaround boilermakers often earn well above the national median through per-diem pay.