The Apprentice Electrician license is the entry point to electrical work in Texas. There is no experience prerequisite — you submit an application to TDLR and pay the $20 fee. It is also the largest electrical license category in Texas — roughly 158,000 of about 228,000 individual electrical licenses (about 70%, TDLR May 2026 staff report).
As an apprentice, you work under the direct supervision of a Master Electrician while accumulating the 8,000 on-the-job hours needed to qualify for the Journeyman exam — approximately 4 years of full-time work. The Apprentice Sign Electrician license is the equivalent entry license for sign work, with the same fees and CE requirement.
Here is what surprises many apprentices: CE is not just for Journeymen and Masters. TDLR requires individual electrical license holders — apprentices included — to complete 4 hours of approved continuing education every year, and it's the same 4-hour course the senior licenses take. Apprentices have one alternative the senior licenses don't: an Apprentice Electrician (or Apprentice Sign Electrician) may instead satisfy the renewal condition by being enrolled in a TDLR-registered apprenticeship training program. The renewal fee is $20 annually (tied for the lowest of any electrical license), with late fees of $30 within 90 days and $40 from 91 days to 18 months.
What it means for your renewal
Unless you are enrolled in a TDLR-registered apprenticeship training program, your first 4 CE hours are due before your first annual renewal date — TDLR emails a reminder about 60 days before your license expires. Don't assume CE starts later in your career: the 4-hour apprentice CE course is $22.95, has no final exam, and is reported to TDLR within 24 hours.
Authority: Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1305