Seeking Advice on Becoming a Certified Electrician

[Saimartinez]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working towards advancing my skills as an electrician and would love some guidance on the next steps to become certified or licensed.

I have about a year or more of experience working on lift stations, fountain services and big structural outdoor lightning. Now, entering my third year of my electrician career, I’ve been working with residential generators, specifically Kohler and Generac.

I’m looking for advice on how to transition from my current experience to becoming a licensed electrician. Currently living in Naples, FL. Are there specific certification programs, exams, or additional training I should consider? Any recommendations on how to best prepare or get licensed would be greatly appreciated!

PS: I’ve only been doing work, never been to an electrician school

 

[kwired]

Someone that knows about licensing in FL would have best answers, but regardless have documentation showing what experiences you may already have just in case they possibly would count that towards any required experience. Better yet is to be in some kind of registered position where that experience has better chance of being considered acceptable. Here that may be working for an electrical contractor as a registered apprentice, or in some industrial maintenance position where you maybe still could be a registered apprentice. I've seen people qualify experience wise without being registered but around here it is the most reliable way to gain that experience and know the licensing authority will likely accept it.

Here you need 5 years experience to be eligible to take the licensing exam to be a licensed journeyman. I'd guess most places have some similarities with this, it is the experience itself and proof of it that can be the tricky part so have good documentation of all of your experience, but check out now what your licensing authority will require so you know you are doing the right things.

 

[Saimartinez]

Someone that knows about licensing in FL would have best answers, but regardless have documentation showing what experiences you may already have just in case they possibly would count that towards any required experience. Better yet is to be in some kind of registered position where that experience has better chance of being considered acceptable. Here that may be working for an electrical contractor as a registered apprentice, or in some industrial maintenance position where you maybe still could be a registered apprentice. I've seen people qualify experience wise without being registered but around here it is the most reliable way to gain that experience and know the licensing authority will likely accept it.

Here you need 5 years experience to be eligible to take the licensing exam to be a licensed journeyman. I'd guess most places have some similarities with this, it is the experience itself and proof of it that can be the tricky part so have good documentation of all of your experience, but check out now what your licensing authority will require so you know you are doing the right things.

Appreciated!
Will paystubs work?
Or more like a letter from the company/electrical contractor I’ve worked for?

 

[kwired]

Appreciated!
Will paystubs work?
Or more like a letter from the company/electrical contractor I’ve worked for?

really is up to licensing authority. Some will accept what you mentioned. Some will take some experiences at a certain percentage if the amount of electrical work you were experiencing is less than "full time" part of the work you were doing. Some may not accept any your previous experience at all if not specifically as an electrical worker or if not properly registered as some sort of apprentice or if the work you were doing should have been supervised by properly licensed individuals but was not.