Becoming an Electrician in Canada (Apprenticeship)

[0:08]All right, hey, what's up, guys? Riley here from becominganelectrician.com. In this video, I want to talk to you about how to become an apprentice electrician, as well as the journey to become a journeyman. As you can see, this is my ticket, right? My uh, certification of qualification. I'm going to be blanking out some information just for privacy reasons, uh, but I'm going to break down how you all get started. This is from Canada, British Columbia, uh, but this knowledge should translate to the rest of Canada, as well as a lot of America as well, because it's kind of these general steps that of how the apprenticeship works being an electrician, okay? Now, if you guys want to learn to become an apprentice, check out my free book. It's called Five Tips to Be the Best Electrical Apprentice You Can Be. You can go to becoming-an-electrician.com/subscribe. And you will be able to download the book for free. Just enter your name and email and I'll email it to you, okay? All right, so generally how this works is there is working hours and then training hours, essentially going to school and then passing, all right? So before we get into hours and all that stuff, I want to talk about the process and which ways you can take, okay? So there is a pre-apprenticeship program. I'm just going to call it pre-app, okay? It's actually pre-apprenticeship program. It looks like now they're calling it electrical foundations. But regardless, what it is is it's just a one-year training program where you go in, they show you all the basics in terms of hand tools, wires, boxes, and how to get started. And I believe that also gives you your first year of schooling. Um, there's a lot of benefits to this. There's also some cons to be aware of. Now, for me personally, I did not do pre-app. I, um, thankfully I was able to just to get a job. And how I got a job was I went and applied, and I'll just tell you a quick little funny story. Uh, I was actually wearing these shoes and at the very, very end of the interview, uh, the interviewer asked me, he's like, hey, you realize that your shoes are two different colors of shoestrings? And I was like, uh, yeah. And he's like, okay. And then, uh, about a day later, I get a phone call, and I got the job. Um, now when I did the interview, um, and one summer, I was working with my dad at like a mill, and uh, there was a fire, and I was just a laborer, and I actually helped an electrician. So, uh, that kind, I guess kind of helped me get the job, but by no means did I know what I was doing. I was like 16 at the time, and I was just helping pull some wires and, um, cut some ready rod and stuff like that. So, you can take the pre-app approach, all right? What this is going to do is it's going to give you a lot of education, um, and it's going to give you, I guess, uh, your first year of, um, level one. Again, this is in Canada, in British Columbia. But the thing with the pre-app program that isn't good is first of all, you have to pay for it, all right? And you're not getting unemployment, so, in other words, you, you are generating no income if you're doing pre-app. So, you're going to school, you might have to take out your loan or whatever you got to do to do pre-app. Um, so I'm just going to talk a little bit about my journey. I'll do it down right down here in the middle, okay? So, I just started work, all right? I started work as an apprentice electrician. Uh, I had no schooling, so I literally came in not knowing how to do anything. Uh, the company sold me, uh, a starter kit of tools, which I do suggest that you look into. Uh, just gave me some basic hand tools, as you can see, this Greenly screwdriver. That was a part of my starter kit. Later on, I started getting client stuff. Um, so if you do have the option, I would definitely look at a client bundle if you were starting up, because generally the tools are very great and they're great for electricians, all right? So I worked, I had my tools, and then what happened was I went to school, okay? And I went to school about nine months later and I went to my level one, all right? So I went to my level one schooling, and you go to school for about 10 weeks, and uh, it's Monday to Friday, uh, you know, just eight hours a day, you're sitting in class, and it's kind of nice, honestly, it's a nice break from, from work. And the benefit now for me, because I told you that when you went to pre-app, you know, you're not getting unemployment, so, in other words, you're, you're generating no income. Uh, yes, you're getting great education, and yes, you're learning the hands-on and stuff, but honestly, you will learn that on the site, and people will show you, like, the real things of what to learn. School's always good, but school always shows you maybe what you'll expect out there. Work is actually showing you what you're actually doing, right? And generally, uh, the people that you're working with, you know, like, they're never going to put you in a situation that is above your skill level, usually, you know, uh, especially when you're an apprentice brand new, you're going to be working with somebody, they're going to be overseeing you. And so, this has been a great way if you can get in this way, but again, you can do it this way. I'm just walking you through what I've done. So, level one was going, uh, I got EI, right? Uh, I was also able to get grants and all that stuff. So, um, you pass level one, then you go back to work. So generally how this works is you work for about nine months, all right? And then you go to school for three months, and it just worked that way. So, again, level two, um, now, you know, you're getting a little bit more experience out there. I think level two, when I was taking them, uh, was now dealing with like transformers and stuff, you're now learning about, you know, um, transforming voltage, uh, and then again, work, right? And so now, each time you come back to work here, so, work was here, work was here, and work was here. So, each time you should be getting paid a little bit more, okay? And so, that's the benefit of, uh, this apprenticeship program. The more you learn, the more you get paid. And essentially, at the end of the day, that's, that's what it's about, because you are trying to provide for yourself, and you're trying to get a great career for yourself. Okay, so level three comes around. Uh, I think now it was dealing quite heavily with motors, and, uh, various other, um, you know, a little bit more in-depth stuff. Motors, uh, is very important to learn, and again, you know, you're even making more money when you go back to work. Okay, and then now in level four, uh, for the most part, uh, it was covering a lot of things that you didn't cover in the other ones, such as, uh, you learned about a little bit about security, a little bit about fire alarm. And again, when I'm telling you that stuff, it's not going to maybe relate to your schooling, because every schooling's a little bit different. Even if you go from school to school, uh, but generally, uh, the last thing I'm going to explain is your final exam. Okay, so this is level four, and then what happens is after level four, uh, here in British Columbia and in Canada, it's called your interprovincial. So, I'll go IP, so interprovincial, okay? And that's how you get that ticket. And so, you can pass level four, and what that's going to do is it's going to give you, uh, your journeyman, I guess, in your province here, which is like a state, uh, there in America, right? That's, uh, a province here in Canada, is like British Columbia or Alberta. You can look on a map. And so, an interprovincial is actually separate. And so, the benefit of an interprovincial is this is Canada-wide. So, it's really, really important that you pass this interprovincial, and it happens right after. So, there's actually two separate tests, and so that's the kind of, uh, process of, uh, in Canada. Okay, so again, you can take the pre-app, and then what would happen is right here where level one is, essentially, you are starting, uh, here. This is where you would be starting. And then after you work, then you go to level two, and again, you should be getting paid more, uh, each time you go back to work. Now, I'll talk a little bit further about this. I just want to talk a little bit about like my timeline in terms of, uh, how I approached it, and as well as hours and stuff like that. Another thing is, uh, your codebooks, okay? So this is the 2018. As you can see on this on the side here, I have all these tabs. These types of tabs are so useful to have. They allow you to quickly go to your different sections because you will learn as, um, when you're in school, this codebook is like everything, right? Like, you got to learn this codebook. Now, one thing you will also discover in school is what's been happening is these codebooks have been coming out much quicker than the schooling can keep up with it. So, sometimes you're you're kind of in between two codebooks, it kind of sucks, but sometimes you can buy these used. So, if you're going to be buying your books, like your codebook, as well as your as well as your textbooks, um, I would definitely check one of your local listings, and I promise you, you might be able to pick up a nice little quick sale, and even pay like, um, half the price because someone is, um, maybe not continuing anymore, or whatever, okay? So, again, how it works is usually, um, you work for about nine months, all right? Give or take, because the whole goal here is, um, for here, um, here in Canada is it's 6,000 hours. Okay, that's how many hours it is to totally pass your whole apprenticeship. I mean all the way here at level four, and in order to get your IP, there's first of all, you actually have to pass the schooling, right? You have to pass the test, but you also need your hours, because this is another form of passing, essentially saying that, yeah, you've put in enough time to kind of generally know how to put on that plug, uh, know how to install that light, uh, when if you're dealing in the panels, right? This is generally enough time to learn a lot of those basics before you can become a journeyman. Uh, I guess like a qualified journeyman, okay? So, yeah, you work for about nine months, then school, school is about three months, okay? It's about, I think it's about 10 weeks. Again, it's a really, really nice workflow, and the benefit is when you do go to school, okay? What I really want to stress to you guys is make sure that you get your unemployment. Now, also when you go to school, there's also many grants very often. Do not be lazy. Ask around to to students, to the secretary, to your teachers. Ask them about grants when you go to school, okay? A lot of times, the grants can pay off your schooling, and sometimes you can even get ahead and make money from going to school. And so, really, like that's the benefits of entering the trade world, is that when you finish the schooling, you should not have debt. You should be out there, and you can actually be making money, whereas a lot of other people when they're entering other industries, they are having to have student loans and stuff like that. And so, this apprenticeship program, because, uh, I guess there is a trade shortage, right? Uh, there's lots of work out there, and there's lots of money to be made, and they are even help you with your schooling, okay? But you have to pass, right? But again, there is apprenticeship grants, and I took advantage of them. I made a lot of money. It was awesome. And then you go back to work, and then you get, you know, then you get your raise. So, again, here is my, uh, certificate of qualification. Uh, you also get, um, a certificate of apprenticeship, I guess, as well, but as you can see, this is the interprovincial standard. So, this is in Canada, uh, but this shows that I passed, and I'm a journeyman, which means I can go anywhere in Canada for the most part, and, uh, I'm good to go. And so, this is where you want to get. Now, one thing I want to tell you guys is I always like to do my music and stuff on the side, right? I became a music producer, I teach you how to, you know, teach beats, and that was my true passion. So, at the moment, I am not doing electrical for a job. I teach how to make beats online. If you're interested in that, you can visit my website, it'sGratuitous.com. But this website here is all about teaching you guys how to become an electrician. This is my little side blog. Okay, so this is where you want to get, because the whole goal of your apprenticeship is that it is a career. If you can finish your ticket, it's a career so that you can fall back on it, or if you want to pursue it further. If you want to open up your own company, the possibilities are endless. And in addition to being able to get paid more, you actually just become a more knowledgeable person, right? Like, you learned about electricity, you got a ticket, if you want to use it, you can use it. If you want to fall back on it, you can fall back on it. Sometimes there's guys on the site who are 50, 60 years old, they haven't gone back to school ever again, and their ticket is still allowing them to work at that journeyman standard. Okay, I just want to bring a little bit more clarity to, uh, the hours and how it works just a little bit more. Now, again, I did my apprenticeship in, uh, British Columbia. And so, I was under, uh, the ITA Training Authority, uh, for apprenticeships and stuff like that, okay? Now, I did the construction electrician. Uh, there is like an industrial electrician, but many times they would just put us all in the same class, because sometimes like there wasn't enough students and and stuff like that, um, which is a little bit tricky when you're in school, because again, if you are doing residential, or if you're doing commercial, or industrial, these are very different types of electricians. Now, if you are a commercial electrician, you can often go to residential and pick it up a lot quicker. It's a little bit harder for a residential electrician to come to commercial because, you know, you got to learn to bend pipe. Residential requires a lot of speed. And industrial is actually this like, honestly, industrial is like a different form of electrician. There's a, you deal with a lot of different parts. And, um, but sometimes what I'm trying to say is they put you all in the same classroom, and they're all teaching you the same stuff sometimes, depending on where you live and the population. But okay, so I blanked out some information on here, again, just for privacy stuff. Uh, but so, as you can see, uh, level one, level two, level three, level four. That's how it works here, and they're all achieved. The interprovincial red seal exam, okay? So, this is when you're totally done. I got my workplace hours, and then the final thing is a recommendation of certification. So, which means that your company actually has to sign off on you. If your company doesn't like you, you know, they could actually say, no, I don't think this person's qualified. So, that's why it's very important to have a good relationship with your employer, because, um, it's all a part of the, uh, of this puzzle. Once all this is achieved, it's essentially like your ticket that you can go wherever you want in Canada, um, and you can start being a journeyman electrician and getting paid. Now, one other thing I want to tell you guys is, um, the pass rate, you have to have 70%, all right? So, it's not like high school anymore, it's not 50%. You need 70% to pass. So, these ones I passed pretty good. Uh, level two was pretty tight for me. I did not enjoy that year with the teacher, a lot of students were not doing too good. Um, okay, so, and then the next thing I want to show you guys here is the workplace hours. So, I had way more hours than what was required to pass. That's one thing to say. I understand a lot of people want their ticket, and they want to get in there, they want to make more money, but you have to remember that once you do become that journeyman electrician, your company does expect some more from you. There's a balance between being ready, making more money, and, uh, getting your schooling done and making it easier on yourself so that the code rules don't change. Now, one final thing I want to stress to you guys is it's very important that your employer is submitting your hours. If you've worked at a company for like two years and they haven't been submitting your hours, you got to get on them, okay? And as you can see, they should be submitting your hours, you know, uh, every company has their own, uh, way of how they do it. But I do believe that there are rules out there. So just make sure that your company is submitting your hours. All right, so I hope the best out there in your schooling and in your apprenticeship. Again, you are going to be having to look for outside information. The textbooks are decent usually, but still, sometimes they're lacking information about further explanations about certain things sometimes. So, thankfully, we now have the internet, we now have videos. Um, so I hope this video helps. If you ever have questions, you feel free to reach out to me. And closing out, if you would like to download my free book, it is for apprentice electricians. You can go to becoming-an-electrician.com/subscribe. Sign up with your name and email, and, uh, you guys will get an immediate download to the book. Thank you so much for watching this video. Again, I hope the best in your apprenticeship, and go get them.