TENNESSEE · ELECTRICIAN · UPDATED FROM FEDERAL RECORDS
How to become an electrician in Tennessee: get paid to train.
You don't need experience to start this trade, and two of Tennessee's big training committees post their full pay scales down to the cent. Tennessee has 98 registered electrician apprenticeships, with 4,027 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 Tennessee?
The median starting wage was $16.37 an hour across 4,242 recent starting records: half were above it and half were below. Separately, recent completers had a median recorded wage of $30.37 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 $14.78 and $19.47 an hour.
The median across 4,242 recent starting records from 55 programs. The middle half earned between $14.78 and $19.47 an hour. At 40 hours a week, $16.37 works out to about $650 before taxes.
The Memphis electrical committee publishes its full scale: a first-period apprentice earns 60% of the journeyworker rate, $22.95 an hour, and the steps rise with hours and classes to 80%, $30.60, in the sixth period. The journeyworker rate behind the scale is $38.25 an hour, and the committee says it notifies the registry when that rate changes.
TVA, the federal power utility, posts annual salaries for its electrician apprentices: $62,895 to start, rising step by step to $93,795 at the top apprentice level, and $110,345 as an electrician once training is complete. You apply through a TVA job posting, and postings open only when the utility starts a class.
02 HOW TO APPLY
How to apply, and how long it takes
No experience needed. At the largest program open to outside applicants, the Memphis committee, you apply online for a $25 fee. You can apply at 17 but must be 18 when selected. You need a high school diploma or GED, an official transcript showing a full year of algebra with a passing grade, and a valid driver's license. Every applicant takes the electrical industry's aptitude test, and a qualifying score gets you a committee interview.
Class time can be unpaid. The Knoxville committee's program runs four years: a minimum of 8,000 hours on the job plus 180 classroom hours a year, two nights a week from 5:30 to 9:30 pm, September to May. Its own page answers whether class time is paid, and the answer is no: apprentices are not paid to attend class. Most apprentices work an eight-hour day Monday through Friday, and many jobs run four 10-hour days instead.
The largest sponsors are union-contractor training committees. The committees in Memphis, Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge train with their participating contractors and assign apprentices to jobs. The non-union contractor association in Memphis works the other way around: you must be hired by a member contractor first, and its own page says it is not a job placement agency. TVA hires apprentices through its own job openings and says that when no opening is listed, it is not accepting resumes. Pick two or three programs near you, search each program's name with its city, and check how and when they accept applications.
Two committees use hard deadlines and the rest take applications all year. Memphis closes applications on September 14, 2026, and says it will pause new ones after that date until further notice. Chattanooga takes applications for its next class until November 30, 2026. Nashville, Knoxville, and Oak Ridge run online applications year round with no posted deadline, and TVA opens a posting only when it starts a class. If a date above has passed when you read this, the year-round programs are still taking applications, and each committee posts its next dates on its own site.
The Memphis committee accepts applications online only, with the $25 fee paid at application. You upload official transcripts, not the diploma: the committee wants the record that shows your algebra credit. The application also asks you to confirm you can do the physical work, get to job sites anywhere the program covers, and attend all required classes.
The aptitude test has two parts, algebra and reading comprehension. Applicants who meet the basic qualifications are scheduled for it, and a qualifying score moves you to the interview. If you miss the score, you wait a full three months before reapplying and retesting.
Interviews run monthly, in the order applicants complete the process, before a committee drawn from both sides of the industry. Your interview and qualifications produce an overall ranking, and you can be selected from the eligibility list at any time for one year. Selected applicants pass a physical exam and a drug screen, and sign an agreement to work assigned jobs anywhere in the program's jurisdiction and to work in the organized electrical industry for four years after completing, or repay the cost of the training.
The program is four years: at least 8,000 hours on the job plus 720 hours of class, two sessions a week of about three hours each, following the local school calendar. Tools cost about $365 if you need everything on the list, textbooks average around $750 a school year, and you bring your own laptop.
03 THE PROGRAMS
Every registered electrician apprenticeship in Tennessee
All 98 programs, ranked by each sponsor's total apprentices at the latest federal count. The bar shows that total. For the 10 sponsors that train more than one trade, the count includes apprentices in their other trades as well. Ranks cover all 98 programs. Prison-run programs keep their overall rank but are listed separately below. 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 66 SMALLER PROGRAMS
Run inside state prisons
1 of the 98 programs is run inside a state prison and trains people who are incarcerated. It's part of the state's count, but you cannot apply to it from outside, and none of the wage numbers above include it.
04 LICENSING
Tennessee licenses you in your own name
Tennessee licenses electricians at the state level: the limited licensed electrician credential is issued in your own name by the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, and contractors carry a separate license. The licensing page lays out who issues what, the exams, and the fees, with a source for each.
How electrician licensing works in Tennessee05 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.
- Memphis Electrical JATC application, program, and overview pages and its program participation schedule effective August 3, 2026, memphiselectricaljatc.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The wage scale, the requirements, the test and interview steps, the costs, and the September deadline on this page.
- Chattanooga Electrical JATC pages, chattanoogaelectricaljatc.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The November deadline on this page.
- Electrician Training Academy pages, etaknox.org, accessed 2026-09-04. The class schedule and the unpaid-class statement on this page.
- Mid-South IEC apprenticeship page, midsouthiec.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The hired-first model on this page.
- TVA electrician apprentice program and careers pages, tva.com, accessed 2026-09-04. The salary scale and the job-posting model on this page.
- 18 Tennessee 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.