I think Michigan is pretty strict.
800 hours school from one accredited by the state to teach during the apprenticeship.
8000 documented hours as a registered apprentice.
Proof of the above needed to sit for the exam.
Since I paid attention in school, passing the exam was easy for me. MANY in my session failed and I know of people that have, even after the 800 hours of school, had to make 5 or more tries to pass the state exam. There is a required waiting period between tests. Tests are only given a few times a year and only in a few places. Typically, an apprentice will have to drive a couple hundred miles (uphill both ways) to get to a test.
All we can take into the exam room is a calculator and a code book, and neither can have any marks on them. They are checked as you go into the door, and also during the exam. If you get caught during the exam with marks in a book, you are failed on the spot. If they find them at the door, you just have to leave your book outside and use one of theirs.
They even check the calculators. None that can store formulas are allowed.
No electrical work can be done by a person without a license or registration, with the exception of the HO. All electrical work must be billed by a licensed contractor, which has to have in it's employ a licensed master (4000 more documented hours and another, harder test). No 1099 electrical work is allowed in Michigan.
There is an apprentice to journeyman ratio of 1 to 1, or 2 to 1, depending on the type of work. No more crews of 15 apprentii and one journeyman.
Apprentii cannot work alone, they must be under the direct supervision of a journeyman or a master that is physically on the site. If the crew is one J-man and one apprentice and the J-man leaves to go get parts or something, the apprentice has to stop doing electrical work. Clean up is OK.
Helpers are not allowed.
As of last year, ALL jurisdictions must follow state law, they can't make up their own rules. I like that. There is a downside, though. 'State Law' is following the Michigan Residential Building Code and the Michigan Electrical Code, which both are about 80 percent NEC references and about 20 percent addendum that the state wants us to do in excess of, or in exception to, the NEC.
Each year, my Michigan Journeyman license costs $40.00 and every three years I have to go through a code upgrade class (over $100) and send in proof of passing in order to get my license.
Is that strict enough?
