possible career in electrical
#1
10-15-02, 12:56 AM
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Deer Park, N.Y.
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possible career in electrical
can anyone tell me how i can study for an electricians license?
#2
10-15-02, 04:53 AM
#3
10-15-02, 08:44 AM
Michael,
There are many ways to study for the electrician's license. There are videos, books, seminars, vocational classes, technical classes and apprenticeship.
One thing you will need to find out about is the exact requirements of the licensing authority in your location. These vary greatly from state to state. Your local authority will give you the specifics.
In most cases the licensing authority requires that you have a certain amount of time in the trade and be able to prove it by affadavit from and employer or employers and w2's. Even these requirements vary from state to state.
If you are really serious about making this your carreer, I strongly urge you to contact the apprenticeship authority in your area. These programs are delivered in one of two ways. Either by the union local in your area or through an independent agency such as Associated General Contractors or Associated Builders and Contractors, AGC or ABC. Both of these groups are non-union.
Apprenticeship is by far the best way to train for this industry. In most cases, when you enter apprenticeship, you go to work for a normal workweek and then you attend related trainging classes in the evening. The idea being that you are instructed on the howto's and whatfor's in the classroom and then you go into the field and learn the application of what you were taught in class.
The term for an electrical apprentice is usually four years. The union program, at least locally, is five years. The programs are usually funded by the state and the employers and tuition is generally borne by the employer. You responsibility is usually the purchase of the required books. In some states, the employer is rquired by law to pay you a training wage to go to school.
It's worth a look if you're serious about this trade. For my money there is no other way to go.
Hope this helps.
There are many ways to study for the electrician's license. There are videos, books, seminars, vocational classes, technical classes and apprenticeship.
One thing you will need to find out about is the exact requirements of the licensing authority in your location. These vary greatly from state to state. Your local authority will give you the specifics.
In most cases the licensing authority requires that you have a certain amount of time in the trade and be able to prove it by affadavit from and employer or employers and w2's. Even these requirements vary from state to state.
If you are really serious about making this your carreer, I strongly urge you to contact the apprenticeship authority in your area. These programs are delivered in one of two ways. Either by the union local in your area or through an independent agency such as Associated General Contractors or Associated Builders and Contractors, AGC or ABC. Both of these groups are non-union.
Apprenticeship is by far the best way to train for this industry. In most cases, when you enter apprenticeship, you go to work for a normal workweek and then you attend related trainging classes in the evening. The idea being that you are instructed on the howto's and whatfor's in the classroom and then you go into the field and learn the application of what you were taught in class.
The term for an electrical apprentice is usually four years. The union program, at least locally, is five years. The programs are usually funded by the state and the employers and tuition is generally borne by the employer. You responsibility is usually the purchase of the required books. In some states, the employer is rquired by law to pay you a training wage to go to school.
It's worth a look if you're serious about this trade. For my money there is no other way to go.
Hope this helps.
#4
10-15-02, 10:24 AM
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Deer Park, N.Y.
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thanks alot, i will definately consider it...
i saw a website that offers certificate courses in many trades such as electrician for roughly 600 bucks, they say the mail in course will take upto 2 yrs to complete, but while i am no fan of a company that has the name "institute" in it, i just wanted to know what you think about it?
a waste of time and money or good for a start?
f/y/i/ www.pcdi.com
thanks again
i saw a website that offers certificate courses in many trades such as electrician for roughly 600 bucks, they say the mail in course will take upto 2 yrs to complete, but while i am no fan of a company that has the name "institute" in it, i just wanted to know what you think about it?
a waste of time and money or good for a start?
f/y/i/ www.pcdi.com
thanks again
#5
10-15-02, 12:04 PM
There are many correspondence courses and they all promise that you can complete them in a given time. I have never seen a syllabus for any of them and I have heard nothing good or bad about these types of courses.
The bad thing about them, in my opinion, is that you don't have an instructor there to ask questions of should you have one. There is no immediate interaction between the student and the instructor and that is not a good thing.
In learning about this trade you will be taught about electron theory, ohms law, voltage and current relationships and voluminous other amounts of information. The theory portion is especially hard to grasp without the right media being interweaved in the curriculum, this means that the instructor may pull from other resources to provide that media,whether it be an overhead slide, computer program, manufacturers information, manufacturers reps and so on. This is one of the critical elements that gets lost in correspondence instruction.
The other thing that you have to consider is the fact that while you are gaining knowledge of the trade and it's practices, you don't get the hands on experience to show you how to apply what you have learned. Quite often a learner has to be able to see and touch what they have learned for it to be indelibly marked in their brain.
I suggested apprenticeship as the best route to take to learn the trade. I did that because you get the classroom portion and then the field work helps fortify what you learned in the classroom. Most apprenticeship organizations use instructors that come from industry and have the background necessary to teach the courses they teach. Many organizations are connected with the National Center for Construction Education and Research or the NCCER. Any organization that is tied with the NCCER has to train their instructors under NCCER guidelines if they are an accredited training facility and those instructors must be certified by the center. The beauty of being in one these types of programs is that they are a recognized leader in the training industry. They use a standardized curriculum with the idea in mind that if you want to move you can find another training rep where you move to and pick up again.
I guess what it really comes down to is whether you are training in this field as job prep or as a self improvement course. If it's job prep and you want to become a licensed electrician, the right option is the apprenticeship program. If not then the correspondence cousre would probably suffice.
Good luck, whichever way you decide.
The bad thing about them, in my opinion, is that you don't have an instructor there to ask questions of should you have one. There is no immediate interaction between the student and the instructor and that is not a good thing.
In learning about this trade you will be taught about electron theory, ohms law, voltage and current relationships and voluminous other amounts of information. The theory portion is especially hard to grasp without the right media being interweaved in the curriculum, this means that the instructor may pull from other resources to provide that media,whether it be an overhead slide, computer program, manufacturers information, manufacturers reps and so on. This is one of the critical elements that gets lost in correspondence instruction.
The other thing that you have to consider is the fact that while you are gaining knowledge of the trade and it's practices, you don't get the hands on experience to show you how to apply what you have learned. Quite often a learner has to be able to see and touch what they have learned for it to be indelibly marked in their brain.
I suggested apprenticeship as the best route to take to learn the trade. I did that because you get the classroom portion and then the field work helps fortify what you learned in the classroom. Most apprenticeship organizations use instructors that come from industry and have the background necessary to teach the courses they teach. Many organizations are connected with the National Center for Construction Education and Research or the NCCER. Any organization that is tied with the NCCER has to train their instructors under NCCER guidelines if they are an accredited training facility and those instructors must be certified by the center. The beauty of being in one these types of programs is that they are a recognized leader in the training industry. They use a standardized curriculum with the idea in mind that if you want to move you can find another training rep where you move to and pick up again.
I guess what it really comes down to is whether you are training in this field as job prep or as a self improvement course. If it's job prep and you want to become a licensed electrician, the right option is the apprenticeship program. If not then the correspondence cousre would probably suffice.
Good luck, whichever way you decide.
