Seeking Advice on Becoming a Certified Electrician

S

Saimartinez

Member
Location
Naples FL
Occupation
Electrician
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
 
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.
 
kwired said:
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.
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Appreciated!
Will paystubs work?
Or more like a letter from the company/electrical contractor I’ve worked for?
 
Saimartinez said:
Appreciated!
Will paystubs work?
Or more like a letter from the company/electrical contractor I’ve worked for?
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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.
 
Take the PROMETRIC test in your area. Most licensing authorities will accept that and get you your license. Don't waste your time with Journeymen licensing. Get your masters and study hard.
 
herding_cats said:
Take the PROMETRIC test in your area. Most licensing authorities will accept that and get you your license. Don't waste your time with Journeymen licensing. Get your masters and study hard.
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Never heard of that being an option here in NE. What exactly is it?

You only need to hold a journeyman license for one year here to be eligible to take the contractor exam. They don't have any masters license anymore, been gone for a long time but anyone that had one was able to keep renewing it, they just weren't taking new applications for masters license.
 
kwired said:
Never heard of that being an option here in NE. What exactly is it?

You only need to hold a journeyman license for one year here to be eligible to take the contractor exam. They don't have any masters license anymore, been gone for a long time but anyone that had one was able to keep renewing it, they just weren't taking new applications for masters license.
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PROMETRIC is a private company that handles test admin. They do nursing exams, master mechanical, engineering, electrical master exam.
 
Last I knew State AHJ was not farming out licensing exams to other entities here. If they did or ever do, I can see it being totally contracted out to a single entity but they would still have to follow the requirements set forth in the State Electrical Act when it comes to qualifying applicants and administering the testing, there would be no permissible bypassing any rules that are in place here. Can people make mistakes or find loopholes, yes, but this is true even without a third party being involved.
 
kwired said:
Never heard of that being an option here in NE. What exactly is it?

You only need to hold a journeyman license for one year here to be eligible to take the contractor exam. They don't have any masters license anymore, been gone for a long time but anyone that had one was able to keep renewing it, they just weren't taking new applications for masters license.
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It may be the same thing as the Block exam, quite a few states accept it. I took my Evansville Indianna masters in Florida. I think Michigan was the same way, but I took it in Michigan. Colorado though, had their own test, but I ended up not going for it.
 
hillbilly1 said:
It may be the same thing as the Block exam, quite a few states accept it. I took my Evansville Indianna masters in Florida. I think Michigan was the same way, but I took it in Michigan. Colorado though, had their own test, but I ended up not going for it.
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Is it a standardized exam or do they have different exam per requirements of each AHJ they would be testing under?

The exams here contained questions back when I took them on rules/laws within the jurisdiction and not just questions about code or theory that might apply almost everywhere. I'd guess they still have such questions but last test I took would have been in 1997. Contractor test was little heavier with rules/laws than the journeyman test was back then but journeyman still had a few of those type of questions.
 
kwired said:
Is it a standardized exam or do they have different exam per requirements of each AHJ they would be testing under?

The exams here contained questions back when I took them on rules/laws within the jurisdiction and not just questions about code or theory that might apply almost everywhere. I'd guess they still have such questions but last test I took would have been in 1997. Contractor test was little heavier with rules/laws than the journeyman test was back then but journeyman still had a few of those type of questions.
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My Florida journeyman’s was basically the exact same test as my Indiana’s master. The guy sitting next to me was taking the Florida residential test, and his had a lot of pool questions, but mine had none.
 
I looked at State AHJ website, apparently they have contracted out a third party to conduct their exams about two or three years ago. Still is no shortcuts to expedite getting your license quicker, you still submit application to the AHJ and if approved they set you up with the exam company to schedule when and where you will take your exam. I'm sure the exam content is also approved by the AHJ and not something totally developed by the exam company. They only work with the one company they contracted with as well.
 
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