Undecided, already skilled, or set on one role. Pick the door that matches where you actually are today, not where a career guide says you should be.
Build your path
Someone with no idea what they want, someone holding skills they've never valued, and someone set on one role need three different searches. All three end at a named DFW employer with a real opening.
01Help me decide
The most common place to start. You don't need a plan to begin.
02Match my skills
For anyone mid-program, holding an unused credential, or carrying years of work nobody has mapped to a job title.
03Role first
You've seen the role and the pay. Now see what stands between you and it.
Upload a resume or start from scratch. You'll get a match score against real DFW openings, the specific skills that are missing, and where you can get them.
Free to create. No cost to see your score.
What your match shows you
Skills by role
Knowledge areas and tooling come from O*NET, the federal occupational database. Wages are Dallas-Fort Worth medians from the federal wage survey. Nothing here is our opinion.
SOC 49-9041
Typical entry: technical college certificate or diploma. Texas projects 6,380 openings a year statewide in this role.
Knowledge
Tools
Maintenance planning software, Machine tool suites, SAP
Industrial machinery mechanics
SOC 17-3023
Typical entry: certificate into the maintenance role, then add the degree while working. Top 10% in DFW: $103,880.
Knowledge
Tools
LabVIEW, AutoCAD, MATLAB, Excel
Electrical & electronic engineering technicians
SOC 17-3024
Smallest of the four: about 110 openings a year across Texas. The top 10% in DFW earn $93,340. Worth aiming at, not waiting for.
Knowledge
Tools
MATLAB, Simulink, PLC and robotics platforms
Electro-mechanical & mechatronics technicians
SOC 51-4041
Skills transfer: CNC programming pays a DFW median of $71,060, more than maintenance, from a machining start.
Knowledge
Tools
G-code, Mastercam, SolidWorks, AutoCAD
Machinists
Occupation data: O*NET OnLine. Wages and employment: BLS OEWS, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro, May 2025. Growth: Texas Workforce Commission, 2024 to 2034 (statewide). See every figure with its source.
Find a program
Pick a role to see the route in, what to look for, and whether tuition is covered. Then choose the format that fits your time: a technical college semester or a self-paced online course.
Route to
Technical college certificate or diploma in industrial maintenance.
Semester-based and hands-on. The route most employers recognize on sight. Community and technical colleges across DFW, including Dallas College, Tarrant County College and Collin College.
Delivered by DFW's community and technical colleges
Start the same day, no semester to wait for. Best for closing one specific gap. Priced per course.
Delivered by Unmudl, the marketplace's learning platform
Route to
Start with a certificate into the maintenance role, then add the degree while working.
Semester-based and hands-on. The route most employers recognize on sight. Community and technical colleges across DFW, including Dallas College, Tarrant County College and Collin College.
Delivered by DFW's community and technical colleges
Start the same day, no semester to wait for. Best for closing one specific gap. Priced per course.
Delivered by Unmudl, the marketplace's learning platform
Route to
The smallest of the four: about 110 openings a year across Texas. Top earners in DFW reach $93,340.
Semester-based and hands-on. The route most employers recognize on sight. Community and technical colleges across DFW, including Dallas College, Tarrant County College and Collin College.
Delivered by DFW's community and technical colleges
Start the same day, no semester to wait for. Best for closing one specific gap. Priced per course.
Delivered by Unmudl, the marketplace's learning platform
Route to
Skills transfer: CNC programming pays a DFW median of $71,060.
Semester-based and hands-on. The route most employers recognize on sight. Community and technical colleges across DFW, including Dallas College, Tarrant County College and Collin College.
Delivered by DFW's community and technical colleges
Start the same day, no semester to wait for. Best for closing one specific gap. Priced per course.
Delivered by Unmudl, the marketplace's learning platform
What "tuition-free" means, precisely. [Name the DFW tuition program and what it covers.] Fees, books, and tools are not automatically covered, and eligibility rules apply. Self-paced online courses are not free. We won't tell you a course costs nothing when it does.
Source: [source link]
Where you can get it
Community and technical colleges in Dallas-Fort Worth with technician or technician-adjacent training, plus the high schools where the pathway can start years earlier.
Search DFW's community and technical colleges by name, city, county, ZIP, or metro area. Each listing carries its programs, its location, and whether it's a partner or network college.
Still in high school? The pathway starts now. CTE programs in manufacturing, engineering, welding, robotics, and logistics carry straight into a technical college certificate, and dual enrollment can finish part of it before you graduate.
What counts as a technician, and what counts as adjacent. We use the national definition, not our own: "A technician is a skilled worker who helps turn technology, infrastructure, and equipment into operating capacity. Technicians install, operate, maintain, troubleshoot, repair, test, calibrate, and improve the systems modern industry depends on."
Technician-adjacent means a role that works closely alongside technicians without being one: technical sales, project management, a service advisor, a parts specialist. You don't turn the wrench, but the job falls apart if you don't understand the people who do. Those programs are listed too, and labeled.
Learner success
The hard part of training is rarely the material. It's the login that won't work, the week that got away, the question with nobody to ask. That's the part we handle, so the plan you start with is the plan you finish.
If your employer is sponsoring your training, they see your enrollment, progress and completion. That's not a report card. It's how the support you need gets noticed and lined up.
Straight answers
Any time a course is recommended against a role, you see what it does to your match score, as a number, before you spend a dollar or an evening.
Illustrative example, not live data.
And the part nobody else writes down: a higher match score means you fit the role better on paper. It does not guarantee an interview, and it does not guarantee a hire. If a course would move you from 70% to 74%, we'll say that too, and you can decide it isn't worth it.
Potential funding
Eligibility varies by program, income, residency, and college. We list what exists and link you to the rules. We don't tell you you've got it.
[What it covers, how many programs, at which DFW colleges.]
Grants and aid you may qualify for alongside [DFW tuition program]. Start with the federal application; the college's financial aid office does the rest.
Some DFW manufacturers pay for training, or reimburse it once you're hired. Worth asking about at an open house before you pay for anything yourself.
The version where you earn while you learn, instead of paying to learn and then looking. Fewer seats, and worth the paperwork when you get one.
Named scholarships and grant-funded seats are listed as DFW partners confirm them. We only list funding that actually exists, and we link you straight to its rules.
For companies and philanthropies
Companies and philanthropies can establish a Future Technician Fund™: a branded scholarship fund that helps people gain skills, finish technician training, and move into technician roles, aimed at the roles and regions they actually hire for. Amazon created the first one to grow the next generation of its RME technicians.
Start from the role or start from the credential. Either way you'll know more in ten minutes than most people figure out in a year.
Every figure on this page is published with its source. Check us.