# IBEW



## Vladaar (Mar 9, 2021)

Good Morning,

So I was working my part time job in Electrical at the big box store, and ran into a guy that retired as a union Electrician. He said since I'm attempting to get a apprenticeship when I retire from my full time job that I should contact this IBEW guy in Charlottesville. I never thought unions was a option in my area because the cities are so small.

But I looked up the IBEW website and apparently if I applied today, it would be 2027 before I would even have a chance to get in? Why is there such a long time frame there? I will have started working for someone and have one more year till I can take my journeyman's test at 2027. I don't think it would benefit a guy like me, by 2027 I'll be 55 years old. I will have all my apprenticeship schooling already done, so the union would prob want me to redo part of it when I already paid and took all the classes I need for taking the Journeyman Test.

I'm right that there would be no real benefit for me to look into this further right? Well the cons would outweigh the pros anyway.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

This combined with your other post - you are not in an apprenticeship. Taking this online course is not replacing any apprenticeship or apprenticeship hours necessary for licensing or work experience, or necessary for any legitimate union or contractor association to consider it as credit for lack of actual on the job experience. Even if this is a degreed engineering course through an accredited college, the IBEW apprenticeship is a work.study course towards journeyman electrician, not electrical engineering and both fields are entirely different. It's not replaceable with a college diploma or a certificate from a for-profit trade/ skills school or a for profit diploma mill.


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## Vladaar (Mar 9, 2021)

You are correct of course I'm not in a apprentice ship yet. Just knocking out the classroom hour requirements on my own dime.


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## MrThrills (Jan 7, 2019)

The IBEW is divided up into hundreds of Locals. Each one is different. You could look up any neighboring locals and see how easy it is to get into those (how many apprentices they take in a year, requirements, etc..). Many locals will also place you in a _pre-apprenticeship_ called the CE/CW (Construction Electrician/Construction Wireman) program too, so try to find out about that. I just topped out as an IBEW Journeyman. Getting in to the apprenticeship program can be a hassle, but I had a great time and highly recommend going union.

But given your circumstances, the best thing you could do for yourself is enter the industry non-union, gain experience, and work towards licenses and certifications (city electrical licenses, if your area has one). Ideally, you'd be doing good work for a competitor of the IBEW's contractors. Contractors have a seat on the apprenticeship board of the IBEW, and the more appealing you are to them, the more they'll want to get you in. You would even be able to haggle with the IBEW and get yourself in as a 3rd or 4th year apprentice, or possibly even a JW.

Of course, by then you may decide you want to stay nonunion. My point is, if you want to get into the electrical trade and the IBEW's apprentice waiting list is backed up, you're gonna have to look elsewhere.

You mentioned you did work at the electrical section of a big box store. Does your store ever serve contractors? That's your in. If you mention you're already taking classes, that'll get contractors interested in you. Back when I was a tire technician, we would often work on fleet vehicles. I mentioned to one electrical contractor that I was thinking of going to vocational school for electrical, and he handed me a business card and told me "forget that -- give me a call and we'll teach you way more than you'll ever learn there."

You can also look up contractors in your area and cold call them. Any company worth a damn has a website that shows off the kind of work it does. Many places are just looking for guys that have a car, a driver's license, and are able to show up on time and sober.


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## LGLS (Nov 10, 2007)

Vladaar said:


> You are correct of course I'm not in a apprentice ship yet. Just knocking out the classroom hour requirements on my own dime.


You have to realize the JW ticket is the final reward after a 5 - 5& 1/2 year apprenticeship, and it's something like 8000 on-the-job full time hours and the 5 years of schooling. You are possibly mixing up a local or state electrician's license with an IBEW journeyman's ticket. If you need to have a local or state apprentice's or journeyman's certification to ply your trade working for someone else, or get at least that in order to test for a local or state electrical contractor's license, that's a different set of requirements in schooling and experience time. It should be, at least I hope it is, equal to or more than what the IBEW requires for a JW ticket.


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

Vladaar said:


> You are correct of course I'm not in a apprentice ship yet. Just knocking out the classroom hour requirements on my own dime.


Want a union job, show up at Local 26 (Washington DC) Tues. July 6th, you'll be working that day within a year you can be in the full apprenticeship.


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