As a large, bustling city, Los Angeles has more than its fair share of trade schools. If you’re looking to learn a trade, you’ll have no shortage of options. There’s something to cover pretty much any skilled trade or vocation that you can think of. The state of California has a huge demand for skilled trades across a variety of industries ranging from construction and agriculture to tech and entertainment. According to TopTradeSchools.com, Los Angeles is home to some of the best and most versatile vocational trade schools in California.
Here, we want to look at Los Angeles’ top vocational trade schools. These are the schools that have a wide variety of courses available and often rank highly among their students. This is by no means a complete guide to every vocational trade school in the city, but it is a good starting point if you’re not quite sure where you want to study.
Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center
This vocational trade school has been in Los Angeles since 1966. It, mostly, specializes in technical courses. Those who attend the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center can study to become electricians, construction workers, welders, and security officers. Recent courses include healthcare and medical tech, child development, and the culinary arts. The trade school is popular among non-native English speakers, due to their English as a Second Language course.
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
The Los Angeles Trade Technical College provides a wide variety of courses, with specialism in construction, culinary arts, and cosmetology. They also provide a variety of courses in medical practice, including Registered Nursing. The technical college places a massive focus on internships, and regularly encourages their students to learn ‘on the job’. Those who may not have the skills required to take a full technical course can brush up on their qualifications in math and English before entering one of the main courses here.
East Los Angeles Occupational Center
One of the primary focuses of the East Los Angeles Occupational Center is to get adults into new jobs, and they often work with disabled people and veterans. There is a huge number of courses here, covering most trades. This includes healthcare, construction, media, cosmetology, and even fashion design. It is one of the smaller colleges on this list, so you may not be able to study toward a complete trade education, but it can be a good place to provide the foundations of learning.
Angeles College
Angeles College is one of the newer trade schools on this list. It only offers vocational nursing programs. Because Angeles College was formed to help bring more nurses into Los Angeles (which was sorely lacking nurses for a while), there are often numerous scholarships available for the more talented applicants.
Harbor Occupational Center
The Harbor Occupational Center is all about getting people into their vocation as quickly as possible. The Harbor Occupational Center offers a wide variety of courses, both short and long. This includes quick forklift operation courses, as well as a complete electrical course. The trade school also covers positions that other trade schools may not (e.g. computer operations, and office administration.)
Newport International United College
The Newport International United College is one of the highest-rated Los Angeles vocational trade schools. Most of the courses at Newport are for those planning to get into the medical industry e.g. medical assistants, nurse assistants, medical technicians, etc. However, they also offer training for basic positions in law, business, and finance.
NTMA Machinist Career College
Founded in 1968, this is one of the more specialized vocational trade schools in Los Angeles. As the name suggests, it is only for machinist training. However, when it comes to machinist training, we don’t think there is a better trade school in the US, let alone Los Angeles. CNC machining is a rapidly expanding trade field and NTMA Career College is recognized by many to offer the best CNC machinist programs in L.A.
Cinema Make-up School
This is one of the more unique trade schools in Los Angeles, but one that produces talented students who are very much in demand. Cosmetologists who plan to work in the film industry, particularly in effects, would find the Cinema Make-up School a great place to start, although you’ll only get very specialized tuition here. It isn’t for more general cosmetology.
California Electrical Training
This Los Angeles vocational trade school provides online and offline courses for those planning to get into electrical work (not all courses are available online, as they require practical work). Courses are offered in both English and Spanish.
Career Development Institute, Inc.
This trade school aims to get people into nursing in as little as 13 months. It does provide heavy tuition, but those looking to break into nursing quickly may wish to check it out.
GSF Driving & Truck Training School
This is one of only a few dedicated truck driver schools. With a huge decrease in the number of truck drivers in the US, salaries have increased in a bid to attract new drivers to the industry. If you’re looking to become a truck driver, there’s no better school to get started than here.
ABC Bartending Schools
Again, another unique vocational trade college, but one that is very much in demand in Los Angeles. This huge bartending school will provide hands-on training to help people learn to work behind top bars.
Considering Your LA Trade School Options
As you can see – there are a lot of trade schools in Los Angeles, and we’ve barely scratched the surface here. If you’re looking to attend a trade school, we suggest you investigate the ones we listed above. They should provide most of the courses needed for whatever trade you plan to get into.
