About Trade Schools Near

Trade Schools Near is a directory of trade schools and CDL training built only from public federal data. No school pays to be listed or ranked, and listings are not sorted by who advertises.

Where the data comes from

• IPEDS Completions 2023-24 (file C2024_A, NCES): awards conferred July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 by 6-digit program code (CIP) and award level, first majors only. A school is listed under a trade only if it reported at least one award in one of that trade's CIP codes.
• IPEDS Directory 2024 (HD2024): name, address, coordinates, phone, website and sector. Closed and inactive institutions are dropped.
• IPEDS program-year charges 2023-24 (IC2023_PY): whole-program tuition, books, length and months for each school's six largest programs, where those are trade programs. The 2024-25 file was not yet posted as a bulk download.
• College Scorecard institution file (Most-Recent-Cohorts-Institution_11022026.zip): 2025-26 published charges, accreditor, Title IV and Heightened Cash Monitoring status, completion rate and school-wide earnings. Schools Scorecard marks as not currently operating are dropped.
• College Scorecard field of study (released Oct 15, 2026): median earnings and federal debt by 4-digit program family and credential level, for graduates who received federal aid.
• FMCSA Training Provider Registry, full location download dated 2026-11-02: we keep In-Person locations that are open to the public, Active, and registered for Class A behind-the-wheel training. Street addresses are placed on the map with the US Census geocoder, or the ZIP center when the address does not match.
• BLS OEWS May 2025: national and state wages by occupation.
• Census Bureau 2025 Gazetteer (city center points) and Vintage 2025 population estimates (which cities get a page).

What is on the site

1,365 schools, 5,525 trade programs with graduates, 239,727 trade awards in 2023-24, and 2,934 CDL training locations.

How city pages work

A city gets a page when at least three schools are within 25 straight-line miles of its Census center point. Trade pages for a city need at least two schools in that trade within 25 miles. Schools in smaller towns appear on the nearest city page within range and on their state page.

Limits you should know

• IPEDS covers only schools that take part in federal student aid (Title IV). Non-Title-IV trade schools, union training centers and most CDL schools are not in it; CDL schools are covered by the FMCSA registry instead.
• Some multi-campus systems report all campuses under one ID, so a statewide college can appear at its main campus address.
• Scorecard earnings lag several years, are pooled across cohorts, cover only aided graduates, and are reported for broader program families than the trade.
• Licensing rules come from states and cities. We link to official sources instead of summarizing hour requirements that change.

Corrections

If a listing is wrong, email contact@tradeschoolsnear.com with the page link. Federal fields are corrected at the source (IPEDS or FMCSA); we will note confirmed errors on the page until the next release.

Advertising

The site is supported by display ads, marked as such. Ads never change which schools are listed or their order.