About Get Into the Trades

Get Into the Trades helps people get into the skilled trades: adults leaving office work, including people whose jobs are being changed by automation and AI, and young people choosing a first career. It explains how licensing works for each trade in each state, the union and open-shop apprenticeship routes, and which states honor each other's licenses. It's an independent site, not affiliated with any government agency, union, contractor association, school or exam provider, and it's supported by ads.

Why state by state

There's no national license for electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians or contractors. Each state (and in some states, each city) sets its own levels, hours, exams and fees, and its own agreements with other states. National career guides can't tell you what your state actually asks for; the state's own rules can.

How pages are checked

• We use only official sources: state statutes and administrative rules, state licensing boards, city and county licensing offices, the U.S. Department of Labor (including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Apprenticeship.gov), and apprenticeship programs' and exam providers' own published rules.
• Every paragraph links to the sources that support it. Hours, fees, exam details and deadlines are checked against the source's exact wording.
• Each page gets a second, independent check before it's published, and shows the date it was last reviewed.
• We don't use trade-school marketing, career blogs or forums as sources, and we list programs by type without ranking them.

What we can't do

Whether your experience, schooling or out-of-state license counts is decided by the licensing office. Use these pages to plan, then confirm with that office before you enroll, apply or move.

Found a mistake?

Please tell us at web@getintothetrades.com. We fix errors as soon as we can confirm them.