Accept you found yourself Googling 'electrician apprenticeship' in the hope you lot'll discover an commodity that has everything you demand to know about:

  • How to get an apprentice electrician
  • Where to discover electrician apprentice jobs
  • The boilerplate apprentice electrician bacon
  • Electrician apprenticeship training

Well, you're in luck.

This guide will tell you everything about getting your electrician amateur license in the US.

Note: You may read this guide and determine that becoming an apprentice electrician isn't for you. Nosotros're going to tell you how information technology is. Why? So y'all're fully clued-in before you lot invest time or money getting your electrician apprentice license. Retrieve of it this way: you lot're better off spending ten minutes reading this now and deciding it'southward not the right fit than a year downward the line, right?

So, the question is: If y'all're considering becoming an electrician apprenticeship, where do you lot start?

Electrician Apprenticeships: The Basics

What is an Electrician Apprenticeship?

In about skilled trades, you need to spend time as an apprentice earlier you go fully qualified. When information technology comes to electrician apprenticeships, it's no different.

Nether the watchful eye and guidance of a Journeyman or Master Electrician, you lot'll learn the skills of the trade on the job—and get paid for doing it.

Do You Need to exercise an Apprenticeship to be an Electrician?

Legally, you accept to exercise an apprenticeship if y'all want to become an electrician.

The classroom has its place (as nosotros'll discuss later when we look at electrician schools), but at that place's no substitute for real world, practical experience.

Imagine this: It'south iv am and your power goes out. Who do you want the power company to ship? Someone who has done the job a hundred times before, or someone who has just read almost the job in books?

Past completing an apprenticeship, yous're showing potential employers that you are dedicated to the task, possess the power to practice it, and have mastered the basics of the trade.

What Responsibilities Practise Electrician Apprentices Have?

You'll commencement by being an actress pair of hands on-site, similar to a laborer. You'll be expected to show upwards on time, do every bit you lot're told, and not complain. Your typical duties will include passing tools to the journeyman/master, cleaning, and tidying. While yous're doing this, you'll exist expected to learn as much equally possible—soaking up everything you run across and hear.

If you show some initiative, you'll build trust with your mentor. During this time, you'll be studying at your electrician school. So shortly, you'll exist asked to help with harder jobs like repairing, testing, and installing electrical circuits (among other things).

How Does an Electrician Apprenticeship Help You lot Become a Qualified Electrician?

Your road from apprentice electrician to Master Electrician comes in 3 stages:

  1. Electrician Apprentice -You'll spend iv-5 years gaining applied experience on the job with your mentor, plus several hundred hours classroom feel.
  2. Journeyman -After completing your apprenticeship and passing the Electrical Journeyman Exam, you'll accept the title 'Journeyman' and will be fully qualified.
  3. Principal Electrician -Subsequently serving two years as a Journeyman and passing the Master Electrician Test, you lot'll become a Main Electrician.

There are boosted certifications you lot can get if you're interested in 'freelancing' every bit an electrician. Becoming an electrician can likewise lead to specialist jobs.

Note: you may observe yourself picking things upwardly rapidly during your apprenticeship, peculiarly if y'all bear witness initiative. But before you go helping friends and family for some cash on the side, you should know it'south illegal in all states to conduct out any electrical work when not under the supervision of your mentor.

So Y'all Want to Go an Apprentice Electrician? Consider These Things First:

Working Hours

If you oasis't had a chore in a skilled trade before, you may be unfamiliar with the working hours. In short, forget the 9 to v workday. Early mornings are the norm (await to exit of bed before 6 am). On average (excluding overtime), you can still look to work a xl-hour week similar virtually jobs, so that early on start ways you'll cease earlier too.

Your working solar day hours may vary depending on where y'all live and if your mentor is a Marriage Contractor or Non-spousal relationship Shop. Additionally, after working your solar day task as an apprentice electrician, you'll have homework to do.

Yeah, homework. Because in add-on to getting easily-on experience, you need to learn the science and math to dorsum it up.

Electrician School

Yeah, there is such a matter as electrician school. Also known every bit "technical colleges" or "merchandise schools," yous'll need to complete several hundred hours of formal education while working your day job every bit an apprentice electrician.

In fact, it's not a bad idea to take some classes at a trade schoolhouse before you employ for your apprenticeship. Why? It shows initiative and puts you ahead of the competition. We'll look at more tips for succeeding in your application in the side by side department.

Apprentice Electrician Salary

Electrician apprentice jobs are entry-level positions, so it'south fair to have that yous'll receive entry-level pay.

Look at information technology this way: if you lot went to college, you'd pay the school to learn. By condign an apprentice electrician, yous're existence paid to learn.

As a ballpark figure, you're looking at a starting salary of betwixt $10 and $twenty dollars an hour, which equates to $20,000 to $forty,000 a twelvemonth. Apprentice electrician salary figures vary from state to state, with the highest being in Denver, New York City, and Tulsa:

Highest Paying U.S. Cities for Apprentice Electricians:

Denver, CO $twenty.77
New York, NY $xx.45
Tulsa, OK $19.61
Dallas, TX $19.23
Austin, TX $eighteen.77
Fort Worth, TX $18.74
Phoenix, AZ $18.71
San Antonio, TX $18.27
Houston, TX $17.76

Source: Indeed.com

In one case you qualify every bit a Journeyman, yous tin can expect your hourly rate to increment to $28-$37 per hour, while Masters tin earn even more.

Applying for Electrician Apprenticeship Jobs

Now that you know what an electrician apprenticeship is, why you need it, what your working mean solar day volition look similar, how much you can expect to become paid, and what hours you'll be working, you should have a better understanding of whether being an apprentice electrician is correct for you. Next, we'll expect at how y'all actually go one.

What Exercise You Need to Become an Amateur Electrician?

Before you apply to an electrician apprenticeship program, there are a few things you'll demand to accept ready.

A good attitude and a high school diploma are essential, while a basic noesis of electrical work is a bonus. To succeed as an electrician apprentice, you'll need to show you're interested in the bigger picture. Rather than waiting around to be told what to do, prove initiative. If yous exercise this as part of your application earlier you start your electrician apprentice preparation, yous'll exist off to a good kickoff.

On a more technical level, you'll demand basic tools and protective clothing. While your mentor may let you loan the equipment for a short fourth dimension, you'll need your own gear before too long. Why not show you're serious about the chore and invest in your new career from the start? It'll help you go a proficient first and will also make you more than highly-seasoned to potential employers when you're applying for jobs.

Does State Constabulary Affect Amateur Electrician Jobs?

Like near laws in the US, the exact certifications and fine details of your electrician apprentice license volition vary from state to state.

For example, in Arizona there is no statewide code and yous won't receive any official license until you go to the Journeyman stage. In Arkansas, you need an electrician apprentice license with the DOL, Agency of Apprenticeship and Training, and the Arkansas DOL through the Arkansas Section of Labor & Licensing. In Texas, you lot must have 8,000 hours of on-the-task experience to be certified every bit a Journeyman, whereas in Due south Carolina the requirements vary on a local level.

Rather than go into the details of all The states states hither, use this guide. Input your ZIP code and it'll tell y'all exactly what you need to know about electrician apprentice grooming law for the state where you desire to live and work.

Where Practice You lot Notice Electrician Apprentice Jobs?

There are many ways to find electrician apprentice jobs nigh you. Here are the six best means:

1. Local Job Boards

Where amend to find jobs close to home than local job boards? Whether information technology's your local paper, on a wall at your local supermarket, or an online job lath on Facebook or Gumtree, starting local is never a bad bet. Why? It'll be easier to practice your due diligence on any electricians offering an electrician apprenticeship.

2. United States Section of Labor

As function of the Registered Apprenticeship Program, employers sign up to take on apprentices in a range of dissimilar industry types. Search past occupations and industry here.

3. Independent Electric Contractors.

The IEC have a dedicated apprenticeship scheme for budding electrician apprentices to begin their electrical careers. Start hither to read nigh training opportunities, finding a schoolhouse well-nigh y'all, and careers.

4. National Electric Contractors Clan & International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

The IBEW & NECA are partners for national and local articulation apprenticeship training committees and centers (JATC). To detect a local JATC, check out the Electrical Training Alliance website.

5. Online Task Boards

Whether information technology's Jobserve, or Indeed, in that location are numerous online task boards where electricians will advertise apprentice electrician jobs.

6. Workrise

Once you're qualified, check back in with Workrise. Nosotros're edifice the free energy industry's largest online marketplace to connect contractors with work.

Union Contractors and Not-Union Shops: Which One is All-time for Your Electrician Apprenticeship?

You lot may hear the term 'marriage contractor' and 'non-union store' when looking for an electrician apprenticeship. Deciding which route to go can be disruptive for aspiring amateur electricians, then hither's a summary:

Union Contractor refers to any electrician who is a fellow member of a local electrical wedlock. The IBEW governs all local unions and is part of the AFL-CIO. Getting an apprenticeship through the union will involve an awarding process, and past becoming an amateur through them, you'd become a member. The IBEW makes sure their workforce is trained, experienced, and properly vetted. Union salaries have been negotiated by union representatives. This route tin exist more hard.

A non-store electrician is more like a conventional electrician, and you lot'd expect to apply in the usual way: answering a task advertisement and going for an interview. Non-shop salaries depend on how much the electrician can afford to pay you lot.

For a total breakup of the pros and cons of each road, bank check out this comprehensive guide from the Electrician Schoolhouse.

The Importance of Picking Your Mentor

While it's true that you'll probably terminate up applying for many electrician apprenticeship jobs, you should notwithstanding exist selective with who you piece of work with.

Yous volition spend twoscore hours a week for at to the lowest degree iv years with this person, then they need to be trustworthy, reliable, and like shooting fish in a barrel to work with.

Cheque their credibility on sites like Yelp, Angi, Rated People, Porch, Google, and Facebook. According to Survicate, 34% of customers are more likely to leave a bad review afterwards a poor experience, compared to 28% who are likely to share a good one, so bear that in mind. Withal, they should still have more positive than negative reviews.

Applying for Apprentice Electrician Jobs: How to Succeed

If you've got this far, we're going to assume y'all've decided being an apprentice electrician is for yous. Congrats! To summarize what you've learned so far: at present you know what an electrician apprenticeship is all about, why you need to complete 1, and where you can find one.

At present we're going to expect at how you get one. And by that, nosotros mean how to succeed in your application.

Electrician apprentice jobs tin can be highly competitive, so yous've got to find a fashion to differentiate yourself from the other applicants. But how?

Do Your Research

Yous're reading this commodity right now, so that's a smashing kickoff. Get equally clued in as possible before approaching any job advertisements so yous're prepared to respond any questions a potential employer may accept.

Brand a Great Start Impression

This follows on from point one, but you can't underestimate the importance of making a good first impression. A firm handshake, confident introduction, and clean presentation all make a difference.

Get Alee of the Competition

Talk near whatever merchandise school experience yous have (if you don't have any, we recommend y'all go some) and what makes you lot different from the competition.

Think About What Y'all'd be Looking for if You Were Hiring

Y'all'd want to see dedication, a get-upwardly-and-become attitude, and agreement of the key skills of the task, wouldn't you lot? So evidence that.

What to Do Right Now: Action Items

Now we've looked at the principal things all electrician'due south apprentices need to know. So what exercise yous do next?

Learn to Drive

What's that got to do with electrician apprenticeships you ask? Quite a lot. As a tradesman, it's pretty important that you concord a valid license. Plus, you lot need a driving license to become certified as a Journeyman.

Find and Enroll in a Trade School

We've discussed the importance of merchandise schools and how they'll not only give y'all a taste of what being an apprentice electrician is all about, but also give you an edge over the competition when applying for your function.

Read Back Over This Article

Brand a list of activity items and check everything you need to do off your list. Shortly, y'all'll be on your way to Master Electrician status.