California Certification Requirements

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B W E

Member
So, in California, anyone working as an electrician that is employed by a licensed electrician must be certified. It defines electrician as:

"(c) As used in this section, "electricians" includes all persons
who engage in the connection of electrical devices for electrical
contractors licensed pursuant to Section 7058 of the Business and
Professions Code, specifically, contractors classified as electrical
contractors in the Contractors' State License Board Rules and
Regulations. This section does not apply to electrical connections
under 100 volt-amperes."

If my guy does not make any connections, either making up boxes, fixtures, or installing devices, rather, he just helps to pull wire, run romex from box to box, and clean up, etc, is he required to be certified??
 

laketime

Senior Member
So, in California, anyone working as an electrician that is employed by a licensed electrician must be certified. It defines electrician as:

"(c) As used in this section, "electricians" includes all persons
who engage in the connection of electrical devices for electrical
contractors licensed pursuant to Section 7058 of the Business and
Professions Code, specifically, contractors classified as electrical
contractors in the Contractors' State License Board Rules and
Regulations. This section does not apply to electrical connections
under 100 volt-amperes."

If my guy does not make any connections, either making up boxes, fixtures, or installing devices, rather, he just helps to pull wire, run romex from box to box, and clean up, etc, is he required to be certified??

Tell the guy to take the test, it is not hard at all. Are you running a business or a side job?:confused:
 

mike33

Member
Location
Irvine, CA
Tell the guy to take the test, it is not hard at all. Are you running a business or a side job?:confused:

The employee needs to have the required hours of experience (8000 hours for general electrician) to be able to take the test. OR he can register as a trainee - which means he needs to enroll in the classes and work directly with a certified electrician.

To the OP wondering if there might be a loop hole that will allow an employee to NOT be certified, I think it would be tough.

The Department of Industrial Relations law reads -
"Residential Electrician is one who:
(1) performs work for a C-10 electrical contractor installing, constructing, or maintaining any electrical system that is covered by the National Electrical Code in single family homes and multi family units, including hotels and motels, where the primary occupancy of the building is considered residential and the maximum voltage received from a utility company is a 3 phase, 4 wire, 120/208 or 120/240 volts."

I wonder who will enforce this and what the penalties are?:confused:
 

B W E

Member
Tell the guy to take the test, it is not hard at all. Are you running a business or a side job?:confused:

I am running a business, I just got my license a few months ago. He is a great helper and can make a great electrician, but he's got a long ways to go. The downside for me is it's so friggin confusing what they want you to do. He has to have like 4800 hours of experience, which he doesn't have, or go to school. I can't afford to pay for him to go to school and he can't afford to go to school on his own. So what's a small time guy like me supposed to do? Somehow be able to afford a certified guy? I guess just raise my rates high enough to:
a. Pay for my guy's schooling
b. ensure i don't get a single job.
 

laketime

Senior Member
I am running a business, I just got my license a few months ago. He is a great helper and can make a great electrician, but he's got a long ways to go. The downside for me is it's so friggin confusing what they want you to do. He has to have like 4800 hours of experience, which he doesn't have, or go to school. I can't afford to pay for him to go to school and he can't afford to go to school on his own. So what's a small time guy like me supposed to do? Somehow be able to afford a certified guy? I guess just raise my rates high enough to:
a. Pay for my guy's schooling
b. ensure i don't get a single job.

Find a guy who wants to be an electrician enough that he would do all the things required. There is a lot of available qualified electricians.
 

laketime

Senior Member
I guess just raise my rates high enough to:
a. Pay for my guy's schooling
b. ensure i don't get a single job.

Are those your only choices. Run a business outside of the regulations or not have a business at all?
 

ike5547

Senior Member
Location
Chico, CA
Occupation
Electrician
Where you are located could make a big difference as well, I believe.

Here is "the" list of approved schools. There appears to be 64 of them. There are 58 counties in California. I doubt that these schools are distributed evenly geographically. No online training as far as I can tell.

http://www.dir.ca.gov/DAS/ListOfApprovedSchools.html

Whenever I get to thinking about this stuff I wonder how apprenticeship is handled in other states with certification requirements.

Apprentices:

Do they have to be registered with a government agency? Pay fees?

Commute to schools? How much does it cost?

etc.

Or is this seemingly extreme degree of red tape exclusively unique to California?
 
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ike5547

Senior Member
Location
Chico, CA
Occupation
Electrician
27 out of 58 counties have schools located in them for apprentices. The majority are in southern California, The East Bay (near San Francisco but across the bridge), and the San Jose area -- in that order. A number of these schools are IBEW only.


Los Angeles (18

Ventura (2

Orange County (6

Riverside (4

San Bernadino (7

San Diego (4

Sacramento (3

Shasta (2

Alameda (7

Contra Costa (3

Santa Clara (7

Fresno (1

Stanislaus (2

Monterey (2

San Joaquin (2

San Francisco (1

Fresno (2

Napa (1

San Mateo (1

Kings County (1

Kern County (1

Imperial (1

Sonoma (1

Santa Barbara (2

San Luis Obispo (1

Butte County (1

Yolo County (1
 
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B W E

Member
Are those your only choices. Run a business outside of the regulations or not have a business at all?

I didn't say my only choices were to operate outside regulations or not have a business at all. But thanks for your input..... I think.
 

knoppdude

Senior Member
Location
Sacramento,ca
If your employee is an apprentice, he does not have to be certified, but does have to be registered with the DOS. If he is working as a journeyman, then yes, he is required to posses the state certification, if you are a C10 contractor. If you are not a C10 contractor, then the certification rule does not apply. That is my understanding.
 
Are the other two still around?

One is still with me, taking his test JW test next month.

One's been a JW for 3 years, but needed health insurance for himself, wife and 2 kids, and I couldn't afford it, so he went to work for a school district as an electrician (with my blessing). He's still available to us when we're in a pinch.

The other one decided to pursue a different career.
 

Shockster

New member
Tell the guy to take the test, it is not hard at all. Are you running a business or a side job?:confused:

Just so you and anyone else reading this knows, the new exam based upon the 2008 NEC is more difficult. I know, because I just took it today. I barely had time to finish and only scored 80 percent. There were very few questions pertaining to situations you're likely to encounter doing electrical work. It was essentially a test on how good you are at looking up and interpreting electrical legalese. Here's a link to a guy who TEACHES this stuff for a living, and he didn't even finish:

<b>What is in the new California Electrical Certification Exam</b>
http://www.quickstartet.com/index.p...-Electrical-Certification-Exam.html&Itemid=48

He says he passed, but note that he doesn't divulge his score.

I'm not a stupid guy and I only scored 80 percent. A lot of guys in my apprenticeship class are going to flunk this the first time they take it. Gone are the retarded questions like "what color is a ground screw." Also, there were only a handful of calculations (which disappointed me because I find most of those straightforward). Some of the questions were general, but many of them were quite specific, requiring the use of the INDEX in conjunction with the table of contents to find the answer. Some questions were very obscure.

I'm not posting this to be disagreeable or contradictory. I just want anyone reading this to not take the test for granted. The only way to prepare for this exam is to practice, practice, practice the code book. Get a computer CD/DVD that simulates the test taking situation. Also, get one that allows you both study and test mode options, and make sure you use your 2008 code book to look up the answers. Do this an hour or two each day for a month before the exam. That's how I passed.

Furthermore, I spoke with the proctors of the exam after I finished, and they said 60 percent of the test takers have failed. Elsewhere, I've heard two-thirds don't pass. Are they trying to reduce the number of electricians? Are they trying to weed out non-union workers and/or illegal aliens? Don't know.
 

John120/240

Senior Member
Location
Olathe, Kansas
Just so you and anyone else reading this knows, the new exam based upon the 2008 NEC is more difficult. I know, because I just took it today. I barely had time to finish and only scored 80 percent. There were very few questions pertaining to situations you're likely to encounter doing electrical work. It was essentially a test on how good you are at looking up and interpreting electrical legalese. Here's a link to a guy who TEACHES this stuff for a living, and he didn't even finish:

<b>What is in the new California Electrical Certification Exam</b>
http://www.quickstartet.com/index.p...-Electrical-Certification-Exam.html&Itemid=48

He says he passed, but note that he doesn't divulge his score.

I'm not a stupid guy and I only scored 80 percent. A lot of guys in my apprenticeship class are going to flunk this the first time they take it. Gone are the retarded questions like "what color is a ground screw." Also, there were only a handful of calculations (which disappointed me because I find most of those straightforward). Some of the questions were general, but many of them were quite specific, requiring the use of the INDEX in conjunction with the table of contents to find the answer. Some questions were very obscure.

I'm not posting this to be disagreeable or contradictory. I just want anyone reading this to not take the test for granted. The only way to prepare for this exam is to practice, practice, practice the code book. Get a computer CD/DVD that simulates the test taking situation. Also, get one that allows you both study and test mode options, and make sure you use your 2008 code book to look up the answers. Do this an hour or two each day for a month before the exam. That's how I passed.

Furthermore, I spoke with the proctors of the exam after I finished, and they said 60 percent of the test takers have failed. Elsewhere, I've heard two-thirds don't pass. Are they trying to reduce the number of electricians? Are they trying to weed out non-union workers and/or illegal aliens? Don't know.

From your description it just sounds like the test is TOUGH!! I do not know

how union/non-union or aliens figure in to the equation? IMHO everyone just

wants knowledgeable, qualified electricans.
 
Since when will a tough test weed out non-union electricians?

Since when will a tough test weed out non-union electricians?

I've been following this since the late 90's when Gray Davis and the unions started the drive to certify electricians. I am in favor of certification, because it lifts the competency level of our trade. But there have been a lot of shenanigans along the long 12+ year road to where we are now. Decertifying every non-union apprenticeship program (including the long established LA City College Program) for a period. Then a push to have the IBEW electricians not have to take the test (since they had all completed their apprenticeship programs---wait---a 60% + failure rate on the first round of testing for the IBEW guys?) And the still standing exemption that staff electricians (i.e. anyone who doesn't work for a C-10, which includes the maintenance electricians at the state capitol building, etc). What a bunch of manipulation. It applies to everyone, based on competency. I am distressed to see it recently change to less real world test questions because that is what is most important.

Also, there was a recent clarification that an installer who is not certified can do everything but the actual connection of conductors to devices or OCPD lugs/panel lugs/etc. and not put an employer in violation. He can build trapezes, install conduits, pull KO's, set boxes, strip BX or romex, pull in wire, hang lights, ---all the mechanical work but not the final connections.

So, you can employ such non certified installers. However, they will at some point (if they are headed for sucess in this trade) want to get certified. And if you are certifying that they worked XX hours for you, you and they are both in a Catch 22 situation. To certify (admit?) that they did the kind of electrical work that would count towards their total required hours, you would be subjecct to fines/license suspension or revocation/etc. for having had an uncertified electrician on your payroll. But you can't count hours logged doing non-electrical work towards the number of qualifying hours. Go figure--
 

knoppdude

Senior Member
Location
Sacramento,ca
Just so you and anyone else reading this knows, the new exam based upon the 2008 NEC is more difficult. I know, because I just took it today. I barely had time to finish and only scored 80 percent. There were very few questions pertaining to situations you're likely to encounter doing electrical work. It was essentially a test on how good you are at looking up and interpreting electrical legalese. Here's a link to a guy who TEACHES this stuff for a living, and he didn't even finish:

<b>What is in the new California Electrical Certification Exam</b>
http://www.quickstartet.com/index.p...-Electrical-Certification-Exam.html&Itemid=48

He says he passed, but note that he doesn't divulge his score.

I'm not a stupid guy and I only scored 80 percent. A lot of guys in my apprenticeship class are going to flunk this the first time they take it. Gone are the retarded questions like "what color is a ground screw." Also, there were only a handful of calculations (which disappointed me because I find most of those straightforward). Some of the questions were general, but many of them were quite specific, requiring the use of the INDEX in conjunction with the table of contents to find the answer. Some questions were very obscure.

I'm not posting this to be disagreeable or contradictory. I just want anyone reading this to not take the test for granted. The only way to prepare for this exam is to practice, practice, practice the code book. Get a computer CD/DVD that simulates the test taking situation. Also, get one that allows you both study and test mode options, and make sure you use your 2008 code book to look up the answers. Do this an hour or two each day for a month before the exam. That's how I passed.

Furthermore, I spoke with the proctors of the exam after I finished, and they said 60 percent of the test takers have failed. Elsewhere, I've heard two-thirds don't pass. Are they trying to reduce the number of electricians? Are they trying to weed out non-union workers and/or illegal aliens? Don't know.

Shockster, what has changed about the test that makes it more difficult? I am glad that they are making it tougher, if this is in fact the case. It seemed to be nothing but a test of navigating the code before.
 
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