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This page explains where the information on Plumbing School Finder comes from and how it is built. Updated 2026-11-14.

Which programs are listed

The directory lists 597 plumbing programs in 50 states and territories. Each listing is a real organization that teaches plumbing or sponsors a plumbing apprenticeship, found in at least one public record. Records from different sources are matched on address, name and location and merged into one listing, so a school that appears in several files is listed once.

  • College program: 246
  • Career and technical center: 19
  • Trade school or training center: 98
  • Union training center (UA): 159
  • Contractor association apprenticeship: 42
  • Apprenticeship program: 10
  • Job Corps center: 23

Employers that hire plumbing apprentices are not listed unless they run an organized apprenticeship program. Programs that train only pipefitters, steamfitters or sprinkler fitters are left out. City pages are built for cities with 2 or more programs, and type pages for states with 2 or more programs of that type.

Sources for school and program listings

  • U.S. Department of Education, NCES IPEDS (nces.ed.gov/ipeds): Completions survey for the federal plumbing program code (CIP 46.0503, Plumbing Technology/Plumber), 2022-23 and 2023-24, with the institutional directory (HD2024) for addresses, websites and control, and the institutional characteristics files for tuition and fees.
  • College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov/data): accreditor, completion rate and program-level earnings and debt, where the U.S. Department of Education publishes them.
  • CareerOneStop Local Training Finder (careeronestop.org), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor: community colleges, career centers and training providers that offer plumbing programs, including programs that never report under the federal plumbing code, plus program length, tuition and WIOA funding eligibility.
  • U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship (apprenticeship.gov): the public file of registered apprenticeship partner sponsors. The file has no occupation field, so only sponsors whose names identify them as plumbing, pipe trades or plumbing-heating-cooling training programs are used.
  • United Association (UA) Find a Local Union (ua.org): union locals and halls. A local is shown on a program only when a training record for the same local or the same city confirms plumbing training.
  • Job Corps (jobcorps.gov): centers that offer the Plumbing, Pre-Apprentice course, with addresses from each center's page.
  • State lists: the Utah Division of Professional Licensing list of recognized plumber apprentice programs, the Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses list of approved plumbing apprenticeship programs, and the Texas Workforce Commission directory of licensed career schools.

Plumber pay

Pay figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 estimates, for occupation code 47-2152, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters. State pages show each state's median annual wage, median hourly wage, 25th and 75th percentile and 90th percentile; the national median is $63,800. Data was retrieved from the BLS public API (bls.gov/oes). Pay is for the whole occupation, not for graduates of any one school.

Career facts in our guides, such as the typical four to five year apprenticeship length, the high school diploma entry requirement and the 7 percent projected job growth through 2035, come from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.

How listings are built

  • Type is set from the source record: colleges and career centers come from the education files, apprenticeship sponsors from the Department of Labor file, union training centers from UA locals, and Job Corps from the Job Corps list.
  • Accreditation is the institutional accreditor reported to the U.S. Department of Education. Apprenticeships and many short trade programs are not accredited institutions, so no accreditor is shown for them.
  • Tuition and program length are shown only where the program or the school publishes them.
  • Graduate earnings and debt are shown only where the Department of Education publishes them for that program.

Fees and prices

We do not set or guarantee prices. Tuition, start dates and openings change, so contact each program to confirm.

Corrections

Addresses, phone numbers and programs change. Email contact@plumbingschoolfinder.com with the page link and the correction.