Electrician Apprenticeships, How They Actually Work

Who runs them

Joint programs run by a union local and a contractor association are the largest and most structured. In Los Angeles that is the training center run jointly by the electrical workers local and the contractors association, which takes applicants every year and trains thousands of apprentices.

Independent contractor associations run their own registered programs, and some large non union contractors run in house programs. All of them register with the state, which is what makes the hours count toward certification.

The application year

Most programs have an application window, an aptitude test, an interview, and then a ranked list. You are called off that list as the work picture allows, which can be weeks or can be a year or more.

The two mistakes people make are applying to only one program and waiting for a call while doing nothing. Apply broadly, take a helper job in the meantime, and the hours and the exposure both help you.

The aptitude test

Algebra and functions, plus reading comprehension. Not calculus and not electrical theory, which they will teach you. Solving for a variable, working with fractions and percentages, reading a passage and answering about it.

Study guides exist and they are worth a month of evenings. Most people who fail do so on the algebra half after years away from it.

The interview

It is a panel and it is scored. They ask why the trade, what you know about the work, whether you can get to a job site at six in the morning across a large county, and how you handle being the least experienced person in the room.

Give concrete answers. Somebody who has visited a job site, talked to an electrician and can say what a day looks like ranks above somebody who says they are good with their hands.

Year one

Expect to carry material, dig, drill, bend basic conduit, pull wire, clean up and watch. It is a test of reliability more than skill. Show up early, keep your tools in order, ask questions once and write the answer down.

School runs alongside, usually one or two evenings a week or a day a week, and it is graded. Falling behind in class is the other way people wash out.