NJ Exam requirement change

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goldstar

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New Jersey
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Electrical Contractor
OK. I spoke to a union contractor yesterday who claims that the Board knew this was coming for 3 years. He says that we are now in line with the plumbers who also have to go through a 4 year apprenticeship. Not sure who to believe at this point.:(
 

infinity

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Location
New Jersey
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Journeyman Electrician
OK. I spoke to a union contractor yesterday who claims that the Board knew this was coming for 3 years. He says that we are now in line with the plumbers who also have to go through a 4 year apprenticeship. Not sure who to believe at this point.:(

I find it hard to believe that in the past three years no one heard a single word about this until the Governor signed it. Either way it is what it is. If they want parity with the plumbers then let's reduce the 32 CEU hours required every three years. :)
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I find it hard to believe that in the past three years no one heard a single word about this until the Governor signed it. Either way it is what it is. If they want parity with the plumbers then let's reduce the 32 CEU hours required every three years. :)
If they remove the 34 CEU hours requirement that will be the beginning of the end of the contractors associations.
 

infinity

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Journeyman Electrician
If they remove the 34 CEU hours requirement that will be the beginning of the end of the contractors associations.

Yes 34 hours not 32 as I stated previously (thanks for the correction). :)

A reduction to say 15 hours would be fine. Why should an EC need 34 hours when electrical inspectors need only 15?
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
There are several approved CEU instructors in my area who are proposing just that. It was a political action committee who initially proposed the 34 hours and got it passed through the NJ legislature. IMHO, you certainly don't need 10 hours (mandated to be presented over the course of 2 days or 2 separate sessions) every 3 years for the update of the NEC, contractor law and smoke alarms. It was their attempt at better educating EC's. Our contractors association used to support that committee but we stopped over the past several years because our membership #'s have diminished and we were hard pressed to come up with a $1K a year donation.

Let's hope this apprenticeship program that the NJ governor shoved down our throats works out for the best. Perhaps we'll end up getting better employees with better training before allowing them to go out there contracting with the public. I don't think the apprenticeship program teaches these young electricians anything about how to be in a business. There's a lot more to having and running a successful company than just bending conduit, running wire and making good connections. Maybe part of the EC exam should be a "Business 101" class.

Perhaps that way we won't have newly licensed EC's out there doing 200 amp residential services for $1K.:cool:
 

revolt

Member
NJ BA

NJ BA

The same union BA is the one who got the prevailing wage requirement for any lighting retrofit over $14,440 if you are getting rebate money
 
Did they still leave in the engineering degree loophole? A Bachelors in Electrical Engineering with a year's experience allowed the exam be taken. Same went for Plumbing and HAVC with a Mechanical Engineering degree.
 
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