An electrician apprenticeship is a paid job with training, and you don't need experience to start one. To start in Alabama, you need a registered apprenticeship program that accepts you, but you don't need a state license, because Alabama has no apprentice electrician license. Alabama has 25 registered electrician apprenticeship programs, with 1,435 apprentices in training at the latest federal count.
About $640 a week at 40 hours. The middle half of starting wages is $14.00 to $18.00 an hour.
Median pay at the end
$24.00 an hour
About $960 a week at 40 hours.
From 1,386 recent starting wages in 20 programs, and 654 people who finished recently in 17 programs. The 2 figures come from different groups of apprentices, not the same people followed from start to finish.
How to get in
Pick 2 or 3 programs near you
Use the list below. Search each program's name with its city to find it.
No program matches. Pick another area or check the spelling.
Also trains other trades: these 5 sponsors train more than one trade, so their count includes apprentices in their other trades.A count of 0 means the federal data recorded no apprentices in training, and it doesn't always mean the program has closed.
How one program works: Birmingham Electrical JATC
Each program runs in its own way. This is how one of them takes apprentices and trains them, as its own pages describe it.
Birmingham Electrical JATC
Birmingham · Birmingham area · 124 apprentices
1
Apply online
Create an account on the Birmingham Electrical JATC's online application portal and complete your application. Then turn in all of your documents.
2
Start work with a union contractor
Once you complete your application and turn in all of your documents, you can go to work with one of the program's union contractors and begin your on-the-job training.
3
Take the aptitude test
Once the program approves your documents, you move into the test pool and wait for an email with a date and time for the aptitude test. The program invites applicants in the order they completed their applications, and if you don't confirm your seat within 72 hours, it goes to the next applicant.
4
Interview with the selection committee
After you pass the aptitude test, you interview with the apprenticeship selection committee. Interviews normally take place in July, and they're the last step before your classes start.
Of the journeyworker wage to start at the North Alabama Craft Training Foundation
50%
The North Alabama Craft Training Foundation (NACTF) is the largest sponsor on the list. Under its registered standards, the company that employs you pays you 50% of its journeyworker wage for your first 2,000 hours, then 60%, 70% and 90%, and the full wage once you complete the program. The standards set the journeyworker wage at no less than $16.00 an hour.
Exam fee for the journeyman electrician license
$115
The Alabama Board of Electrical Contractors charges $115 for the journeyman electrician exam. Once you pass, the journeyman electrician license costs $35, and you renew it every year for $35.
At the North Alabama Craft Training Foundation (NACTF), you must be employed to become an apprentice. NACTF's count includes the other trades it trains, and its website lists the companies that take part. Its classes meet 1 night a week in Huntsville, Madison and Decatur, and registration for classes runs from May through mid-July each year.
The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship (AOA) registers apprenticeship programs in Alabama. The AOA's online dashboard lists the program sponsors it registers and the occupations each one trains.
The Birmingham Electrical JATC is the largest program open to outside applicants. It places its apprentices with union electrical contractors. The electricians' union (IBEW) and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) pay for your tuition, so you pay only for your books.
To apply to the Birmingham Electrical JATC, you must be at least 18 years old and a high school graduate or have a GED. You must also have passed 1 full year of high school algebra or 1 algebra course after high school, and you must pass a drug test. You need these documents to apply.
your official high school transcript, or your GED with your scores, because a copy of your diploma isn't enough
a valid Alabama driver's license, because a state-issued ID isn't accepted
your Social Security card
To complete the apprenticeship, you need 8,000 hours on the job and 720 classroom hours. You move up a level each year once you complete 180 classroom hours and 2,000 hours on the job. Classes meet from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm, usually 1 or 2 nights a week, at the training center in Birmingham.
Before you finish, you need OSHA 10, CPR and first aid and a craft certification. You also need your journeyman electrician license from the State of Alabama.
If you don't want to take classes now, you can start in the CW/CE program instead. To start, you need only a state-issued ID and a Social Security card. The CW/CE program is also a path to journeyman status, and you move up its 8 levels by your hours worked and by hands-on proficiency exams.
Note: Layoffs are common in construction. If you're laid off, call the Birmingham Electrical JATC, and it finds you a new contractor to work for.
To work as a journeyman electrician in Alabama, you need the journeyman electrician license from the Alabama Board of Electrical Contractors, or a license from the county or city where you work, which is good only there. To take the exam for the journeyman electrician license, you need 8,000 hours of electrical work, and up to 2,000 of those hours can come from school or an apprenticeship program. This license allows you to install electrical wiring and equipment under a master electrician or an electrical contractor, and counties and cities must accept it.
U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026: the programs, the apprentice counts, the 2 median wages and the range of starting wages
Birmingham Electrical JATC home and apply pages: the requirements, the documents, the application steps, the test pool, the interview, the hours, the class schedule, the tuition, the certifications, the CW/CE program and the help after a layoff
