GEORGIA · ELECTRICIAN · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become an electrician in Georgia: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start this trade, and the largest program charges no tuition. Its applications open for about two months once a year, and the contractor association's program enrolls year round. Georgia has 41 registered electrician apprenticeships, with 5,235 people in training at the latest federal count. This page shows you how applying works and where every program is.
01 THE PAY
How much do electrician apprentices make in Georgia?
The median starting wage was $16.00 an hour across 5,491 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $28.14 an hour. These are different groups of apprentices, not the same people tracked from start to finish. The middle half of starting wages fell between $15.00 and $18.00 an hour.
The median across 5,491 recent starting records from 27 programs. The middle half earned between $15.00 and $18.00 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $16.00 works out to about $640 before taxes.
The Atlanta electrical committee prints its pay steps in flat dollars. First-year apprentices start at $18.00 an hour, with a raise every 1,600 hours of work up to $30.00 at the top step, and the published graduate rate is $40.00. A raise also requires class attendance and a paid-in-full book account. The program charges no tuition, and books run about $436 to $621 a year.
The Savannah training alliance publishes an $18.34 starting rate, then a wage schedule that rises from 55% to 85% of the journeyman rate as hours accumulate, from $19.25 to $29.75 an hour. Each published step is consistent with a $35.00 journeyman rate; that figure is our calculation from the program's own wage table. The Atlanta program publishes a $40.00 graduate rate. The percentages may look similar between programs, but the dollar amount depends on the journeyman rate each program uses.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the Atlanta committee, Georgia's largest program, you need a high school diploma or GED, a photo ID, either a birth certificate or passport, and proof that you live within the union's jurisdiction. Applying costs $46 in application and testing fees. Veterans can have the processing fee waived with a DD-214, and incomplete applications are not accepted. Every applicant takes an aptitude test covering math, algebra, and reading comprehension. The committee publishes the passing score: 5 out of 9 points.
The contractor association offers another route. Independent Electrical Contractors runs one apprenticeship across Georgia through two chapters: one covering nineteen metro Atlanta counties and one covering the rest of the state. Classes are offered in Kennesaw, Union City, Conyers, Augusta, Macon, Columbus, and Savannah, with an online option as well. The program starts with the employer. Classes begin year-round, and annual tuition of $1,495 plus books is billed to your employer. The chapters refer applicants to member contractors rather than guaranteeing placement. You can take the classes without a member employer, but the chapter says you would not be registered as an apprentice. You would earn the 576 classroom hours only, not the 8,000 on-the-job hours required for the journeyworker certificate.
You do not need an individual electrician license to start. Georgia does not issue a statewide license to individual electricians. The state licenses electrical contractors instead, while cities can still impose their own local licensing requirements. Georgia also has no state apprenticeship agency. Your sponsor registers the apprenticeship with the U.S. Department of Labor, so you do not file that registration yourself. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
The Atlanta committee's applications are closed, and its site says they reopen in 2027 for Fall 2027 classes; its most recent window ran February 1 to March 31. The Augusta committee's next window is January 4 to June 2, 2027, in person on weekdays. The Savannah program hands out and accepts applications on Wednesdays only, and Macon takes them any weekday you walk in with your documents and $30. Ace Electric, a Valdosta contractor that trains its own hires, enrolls its employees September 15 to October 31, 2026. If a date above has passed when you read this, each program posts its next dates on its own site.
The Atlanta committee takes applications through an online account, during one window a year that stays open about two months. The processing fee is $23 per program and the aptitude test fee is another $23. You upload a photo ID, a birth certificate or passport, your diploma or transcripts, and proof of residence, and applications missing any document are not accepted.
You can ask to be placed on the waiting list for a work assignment with one of the committee's contractors only after passing the test. Applying for admission does not guarantee employment.
First-year apprentices start at $18.00 an hour and attend class one day every other week, from 7 am to 3 pm, in a hybrid of in-person and virtual sessions. The classroom side runs 720 hours across four years, two semesters a year. Tuition and class fees are covered by a scholarship all the contractors contribute to; books are the one expense, due six weeks before each year's first semester.
The apprenticeship is a minimum of 8,000 hours of on-the-job training. Pay steps come every 1,600 work hours, and each one requires class attendance and a paid-in-full book account as well as the hours. Finishing earns the U.S. Department of Labor and Electrical Training Alliance journey-level electrician certification, and the committee's published graduate rate is $40.00 an hour.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered electrician apprenticeship in Georgia
All 41 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 4 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 41 programs. A zero means no apprentices were recorded in training in this dataset; it does not necessarily mean the program has closed.
The biggest programs
Smaller and single-company programs
SHOW ALL 27 SMALLER PROGRAMS
04 LICENSING
Georgia licenses the business, not the electrician
There is no state license for an individual electrician in Georgia, and no state card to earn before you start. What the state licenses is the electrical contractor, through Class I and Class II licenses that require four years of trade experience. Cities can still license the trade themselves. The licensing page lays out how that works, with a source for each claim.
How electrician licensing works in Georgia05 SOURCES
- U.S. Department of Labor national apprenticeship data, extract of August 17, 2026. Every program, every count, the two state medians and the starting-wage band on this page.
- Atlanta Electrical JATC application, requirements, and calendar pages and its published pay rate and book cost sheets, aejatc.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The $46 fees, the 5 out of 9 pass mark, the $18.00 to $40.00 pay steps on the sheet updated July 8, 2026, the book costs on the sheet updated January 30, 2026, the hours, and the closed-until-2027 status on this page.
- IBEW Local 613 apprenticeship recruitment page, ibew613.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The February 1 to March 31 window dates on this page.
- IEC Atlanta and Georgia chapters apprenticeship, FAQ, and enrollment pages, iecatlantaga.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The $1,495 tuition, the two-chapter split, the year-round classes, the classroom cities, and the trainee warning on this page.
- CSRA Electrical JATC application page, ibew1579.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The January 4 to June 2, 2027 window on this page.
- Savannah Electrical Training Alliance application and class pages, sav-electricaltrainingalliance.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The Wednesday rule, the $18.34 start, the 55% to 85% steps, and the implied $35.00 journeyman rate on this page.
- Macon Electrical JATC pages, ibew1316.org and maconetc.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The $30 fee and the walk-in application on this page.
- Ace Electric apprenticeship enrollment and dates pages, aceapprenticeship.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The September 15 to October 31, 2026 enrollment dates on this page.
- U.S. Department of Labor apprenticeship system page, apprenticeship.gov, accessed 2026-09-04. Georgia's place in the federal Office of Apprenticeship column on this page.
- 12 Georgia filings in the source data name a different state inside their own registration numbers. They are under review, and no figure on this page counts them.
EVERY FIGURE ON THIS PAGE IS FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP DATA, EXTRACT OF AUGUST 17, 2026, EXCEPT THE SOURCE-MARKED RATES IN THE MONEY SECTION.