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.
