Apprenticeship
An IEC apprentice works full time for an electrical contractor and goes to class two evenings 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 two evenings 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 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, contact the chapter office and ask which member companies are 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. The apprentice pays nothing for the program. You may need your own hand tools, and some employers supply those too.
The apprentice works the full week on the contractor’s jobs and attends class two evenings, Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, 4:30 to 7:30 pm or 5:00 to 8:00 pm. Classes are held at member contractors’ locations until the chapter has its own classroom.
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.
Eligibility
This apprenticeship program does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, genetic information or disability.
Military electrical experience counts. Veterans may test into an advanced year rather than starting at Year 1. The chapter has applied for approval so that eligible veterans can use GI Bill® benefits.
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.
Apply
The first apprentice class started on August 17, 2026. Fill in the application and the chapter office will contact you about the next intake.
Already working for an electrical contractor? Have them enroll you with the sponsorship form.
Membership is open
The chapter was chartered in 2026 and its first apprentices are already in class. Contractors who join now have a direct say in where training goes next.