How to become an electrician.

Is this trade for you?

Electricians wire buildings, plants, schools and hospitals, and keep them running. You work wherever the job is — a factory floor one month, a hospital or a power plant the next, sometimes outdoors, sometimes underground — and it changes from job to job. You learn the trade on the jobsite by day and in our classrooms and labs in the evening.

Feeding wire from a lift.

Driving ground rods on a jobsite.

What a normal day asks of you

These aren't optional. Every apprentice has to be able to do this work, on construction jobsites, for five years and beyond — this is the career.

• Climb ladders, scaffolds, poles and lifts
• Work in tight spaces — attics, crawlspaces, manholes
• Lift and carry 25 to 50 pounds
• Use hand tools and power tools
• Work indoors and outdoors in all weather
• Drive to the job and to class — early starts, and the job can be an hour or more away. You need a reliable vehicle

Be honest with yourself here. The test and the interview happen in our building, and so do your classes. The 8,000 hours of on-the-job training, and the rest of your working life, happen on the jobsite.

No experience needed. Almost nobody who starts has any.

Can you apply?

You can if all of these are true:

• 18 or older — or 18 by September 1 if you're still in high school
• A high-school diploma or a GED. Homeschool and online-school diplomas count
• Passed Algebra I, or finished the SkillsPrep online math course
• Live in Beaver, Lawrence, Mercer or Crawford County, Pennsylvania, with a Pennsylvania driver's license showing it
• A reliable way to get to work and to class — jobs are anywhere in the four counties and classes are in New Castle

What you'll need

Everything the application asks for. Have it all available before you start.

• Your Pennsylvania driver's licenseUploaded inside the application. The address on it must be in Beaver, Lawrence, Mercer or Crawford County. If you've recently moved into the four counties, also upload the address-change paperwork from PennDOT.
• Your birth certificateUploaded inside the application.
• Your DD-214, if you served in the militaryUploaded inside the application.
• A résumé, if you have one Optional — not requiredUploaded inside the application.
• Your official high-school transcriptThe one thing that doesn't get uploaded. It's sent by your school straight to the training center. The next step says exactly what counts and where it goes. Ask your school early.

Your school records

We only accept official records. Official means it comes from the school or the organization that issued it — sealed, or mailed to us directly. A copy you print, photograph or scan doesn't count.

Mail records to:
The Electrician Apprentice Training Center
3891 Wilmington Road, Neshannock Township, PA 16105

Everyone is checked against the same list, however they finished school — public, private, cyber, homeschool, or outside Pennsylvania.

Proof you finished high school — any one of these:

• Official high-school transcript showing your graduation dateAsk your school to send it to us, or send the sealed copy they give you.
• GED or HiSET certificate, or a Commonwealth Secondary School DiplomaPennsylvania issues these through diplomasender.com.
• Home education diploma on Pennsylvania form 6008It must carry two signatures — your home education supervisor and your twelfth-grade evaluator.
• Diploma from a Pennsylvania-approved home-school diploma organizationFor example PHAA, Erie County Homeschoolers, Mason Dixon Homeschoolers, Susquehanna Valley Homeschool Diploma Program.
• Diploma and transcript from a cyber charter or accredited online school
• Official college transcript showing an associate degree or higher

Proof you passed Algebra I — any one of these:

• Official transcript showing an Algebra I credit and the year you took itThe course can be called Algebra 1, Elementary Algebra, Math 9, Integrated Math or anything similar — we read the transcript, we don't judge the title.
• Official college transcript showing one semester of algebra
• SkillsPrep or electrical training ALLIANCE Tech Math completion certificate
• For a home education transcript that doesn't show grades: the written evaluation for the school year you took algebra

Where to get your records

Ask whoever holds the record: your high school's guidance office, your home education supervisor or evaluator, the organization that issued your diploma, or diplomasender.com for a Commonwealth diploma.

We can't check records in advance. Sign in to your application to see what has arrived and what's still missing.

Apply

Applications are accepted from September 1 to March 31. The button below asks one question — where you live — then takes you to our application site. There you create an account, pay the $25 application fee, answer the questions and upload the documents it asks for. Your school records come to us by mail from your school. You have 30 days from creating the account to finish. If your school needs longer to send a record, reach out to us and we'll make the arrangements.

Your application is complete once we've received everything on the list. Sign in to your application any time to check its status.

Before you apply, read Applying and qualifying for the apprenticeship (PDF) — what the work asks of you, what's required, and sample questions from the aptitude test.

Start your application Already started? Go back in

Applied? Here's what happens next.

The test, the interview, the list, the offer — and how to tell where you are. It's all on one page.

After you apply

Questions people ask

Read all of this and still have a question that isn't here? The training center's contact details are on the About page.