CALIFORNIA ELECTRICAL TRAINING, INC.®

A trainee is performing work as an electrician who is not yet been certified and not indentured in an apprenticeship program. California’s electrician certification law requires anyone performing work in the field for a C-10 electrical contractor to fall into one of these three categories: certified journeyman, indentured apprentice, or an electrical trainee registered with the state. If you work for a C-10 contractor and are performing electrical work in the field and not registered with the state you are in violation of the electrician certification law and your contractor employer runs the risk of incurring fines and penalties from the CSLB, up to and including suspension of the contractor’s license.
In addition to registering with the state, trainees must also be attending courses with a State-approved school or training provider click here for the list of “approved school” such as ours.


An apprentice is someone indentured in a state-approved apprenticeship training program. Contractors are required to employ apprentices on public works projects at a ratio of one apprentice hour worked for every five journeyman hours worked.
Apprentices and Journeymen are the only classes of pay on a public works project. Even an electrician who is not certified must be paid journeyman wages on a public project unless he or she is an apprentice indentured with a state-approved apprentice program.