Apprenticeship
An IEC apprentice works full time for an electrical contractor and goes to class one evening a week. There is no student debt at the end of it, because the employer pays the tuition.
Program overview
Apprenticeship is not school with a job attached. It is a job with school attached. You are hired by an electrical contractor, you work their jobs Monday through Friday for a paycheck, and one evening a week you are in a classroom with an instructor who is a licensed electrician.
Over four years you accumulate the two things a state licensing board cares about: documented on-the-job hours ([8,000 hrs target]) and related classroom instruction on a registered curriculum. Get both and you sit for the exam.
IEC Florida First Coast teaches the IEC national curriculum, which is registered with the U.S. Department of Labor and used by chapters nationwide. Your credit transfers if you move.
Programs
10 weeks
No experience, no tools, no contractor yet. Career Prep is the on-ramp: basic electrical theory, hand tools, jobsite safety and what the trade actually asks of you, taught in the evenings. Finish it and the chapter helps place you with a member contractor as a first-year apprentice.
4 years
The core program. Four years of classroom instruction on the IEC national curriculum, run alongside full-time paid employment with your sponsoring contractor. You leave with the on-the-job hours and the related classroom instruction Florida wants to see behind a journeyman-level license application.
2 years
Fire alarm, access control, structured cabling, security and AV. A separate two-year track for apprentices working on the limited-energy side, with its own curriculum and its own state licensing path.
How sponsorship works
You cannot enroll in the apprenticeship on your own. Every apprentice is sponsored by an electrical contractor who employs them full time and pays their instruction fee. If you don’t have a contractor yet, start with Career Prep, that’s what it’s for, or come to an info session and meet the member companies hiring.
Contractors, read this
Sponsorship is how you build the crew you actually want, at a cost you control. Requirements are on the membership page.
Sponsorship starts with a job. A member contractor puts the apprentice on payroll as a full-time employee at the company’s own first-year wage. The chapter does not set wages and does not employ anyone.
The sponsoring contractor enrolls the apprentice with the chapter for the coming school year and signs the sponsorship agreement covering attendance, progression and conduct.
Instruction fees are billed to the sponsoring contractor, not the apprentice: [$ per year, TBD]. The apprentice is typically responsible only for books, tools and any exam fees.
The apprentice works the full week on the contractor’s jobs and attends class one evening, roughly [N] hours of related classroom instruction across a [Sept–May] school year.
Progression is annual. The contractor re-enrolls the apprentice for the next year and reports on-the-job hours; the chapter reports grades and attendance back to the contractor.
Curriculum
The outline below follows the IEC national curriculum. Exact module sequence and hours for the Florida First Coast chapter are set by the training committee before the first class.
DC and AC theory, electrical safety, hand and power tools, the National Electrical Code as a document, and how to find things in it before you have to argue about them.
Branch circuits, feeders, conductor sizing and ampacity, raceway and box fill, grounding and bonding, residential and light commercial rough-in.
Motors and motor controls, transformers, three-phase systems, commercial service equipment, blueprint reading and load calculations.
Advanced code applications, overcurrent protection and coordination, fire alarm and low-voltage interfaces, jobsite supervision, and journeyman exam preparation.
Full module-by-module outline: [link to curriculum PDF]
Eligibility
This apprenticeship program does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, genetic information or disability. [Final EEO language pending counsel review]
Military electrical experience counts. Veterans may test into an advanced year rather than starting at Year 1, and the chapter intends to pursue approval for GI Bill® benefits once the program is registered.
Approval status: [pending, not yet approved]
Coming from another apprenticeship, another IEC chapter or a different program entirely? Bring your transcript and hours. You’ll be placed by assessment, not by the name on the paperwork.
Florida licensing requirements vary by county and by license class. [Verify against current FL DBPR and local rules before publishing]
Apply
Enrollment opens once the chapter is chartered and the classroom is confirmed. Tell us you’re interested and you’ll be contacted with the application before it goes public, along with the date of the first info session.
Already working for an electrical contractor? Have them register you directly: [sponsoring contractor enrollment form link]
Charter membership is open
Founding members set the training calendar, the class locations and the dues structure for the whole chapter. Once the first apprentice class seats, those decisions are made.