Electrical Apprentice 11 (Non-Union)

Course Description

Electrical Apprentice 11 is designed for electrical non-union apprenticeship students to develop competencies in blueprint reading, motor calculations and transformer calculations.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, BCA is the Building Construction Apprenticeship prefix, and the 0000-level number marks this as PSAV clock-hour instruction. Daytona State publishes it at 99 clock hours, offered spring, with BCA0342L as corequisite. ⚠ It carries no college credit.

The three subjects named here are precisely the ones that carry most weight on a journeyman examination. Motor and transformer calculations are where examination time is lost, and blueprint reading at this level means taking a full construction set and producing an installation from it. This is examination preparation whether or not it is labelled as such — treat it accordingly.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Apply electrical theory to installation problems.
• Locate and apply National Electrical Code requirements.
• Perform the electrical calculations required by the level.
• Read and interpret construction drawings and specifications.
• Describe materials, equipment, and methods appropriate to the work.
• Apply job site safety practice and describe the relevant hazards.
• Describe installation requirements and the reasoning behind them.
• Verify and test completed work.
• Diagnose faults systematically.
• Communicate technical information clearly.
• Relate classroom content to work performed on the job.
• Prepare for the journeyman examination progressively.
• Read and interpret complete construction drawing sets.
• Interpret specifications, schedules, and riser diagrams.
• Coordinate electrical drawings with other trades' drawings.
• Perform motor calculations, including branch circuit and feeder sizing.
• Size motor overload and short-circuit protection to code.
• Perform transformer calculations, including sizing and protection.
• Calculate transformer primary and secondary conductor sizing.
• Apply code requirements governing motors and transformers.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe emerging technologies affecting the trade.
• Describe estimating and productivity methods.
• Describe supervision and crew leadership.
• Describe inspection processes and preparing for them.
• Obtain an OSHA construction card.
• Complete additional code study.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Electrical theory applied to installation
• NEC location and application
• Electrical calculations
• Drawings and specifications
• Materials, equipment, and methods
• Job site safety
• Installation requirements and reasoning
• Verification and testing
• Systematic fault diagnosis
• Technical communication
• Linking classroom to job
• Journeyman examination preparation
• Complete drawing sets
• Specifications, schedules, and risers
• Trade coordination on drawings
• Motor calculations
• Motor protection sizing
• Transformer calculations
• Transformer conductor sizing
• Motor and transformer code requirements

Optional Topics

• Emerging technologies
• Estimating and productivity
• Supervision and leadership
• Inspection processes
• OSHA card
• Additional code study

Resources & Tools

• Your NEC code book — the correct adopted edition, tabbed and carried. The most important object in this trade.
• Your hour record and work-process log — keep your own copy. It proves your progress toward completion.
• NFPA (nfpa.org) — publisher of the NEC and NFPA 70E; free read-only online access to codes.
• NFPA 70E — the electrical safety standard covering arc flash, boundaries, and personal protective equipment.
• Ugly's Electrical References — the pocket reference every electrician carries.
• NCCER (nccer.org) — the curriculum and credentialing system most non-union construction training uses; its records are portable between employers.
• Independent Electrical Contractors (ieci.org) and Associated Builders and Contractors (abc.org) — the principal merit-shop apprenticeship sponsors nationally.
• Mike Holt Enterprises (mikeholt.com) — widely used NEC training and exam preparation, with a substantial free video library.
• Florida Building Code (floridabuilding.org) — free; shows how the NEC is adopted and amended in Florida.
• Florida DBPR (myfloridalicense.com) — free; the authority on electrical contractor licensing.
• OSHA construction standards (osha.gov) — free; subpart K covers electrical.
• A good multimeter and a non-contact tester you trust — a meter that lies to you is worse than no meter.
• Your journeyman and your foreman — the most valuable resource in the programme.

Career Pathways

• Electrician — SOC 47-2111; consistently among the largest and best-paid skilled trades.
• Journeyman electrician — the credential this apprenticeship produces.
• Commercial and residential electrical construction — the core of merit-shop electrical work.
• Service and troubleshooting work — frequently the fastest route to responsibility in a smaller contractor.
• Maintenance electrician in manufacturing, hospitals, hotels, theme parks, and government facilities — salaried with benefits, a very large Florida sector.
• Motor controls, instrumentation, and industrial automation — a technical, well-paid speciality.
• Low-voltage, fire alarm, security, and structured cabling — separate licence categories with their own demand.
• Solar photovoltaic installation — a growing Florida sector.
• Utility and line work — SOC 49-9051; separate training, higher risk, higher pay.
• Foreman, general foreman, and superintendent — the site progression from the tools.
• Estimator, project manager, or electrical inspector — routes off the tools using the same knowledge.
• Electrical contracting — ⚠ a state-licensed activity requiring documented experience.

Special Information

⚠ Motor and transformer calculations are where examination time is lost

• These are the highest-value calculations to master before a journeyman examination, and they are the ones candidates most often run out of time on.
• Motor calculations use table values, not nameplate amps, for conductor sizing — that distinction is deliberately tested and routinely got wrong.
• Overload protection and short-circuit protection are sized differently and for different purposes. Overload protects the motor from running too hot; short-circuit and ground-fault protection handles faults. They are not interchangeable and the code treats them separately.
• Work transformer problems from both sides. Primary and secondary conductor sizing and protection follow different rules, and the secondary side has its own requirements.
• Practise against a clock with your tabbed code book — the examination measures navigation speed as much as arithmetic.
• Sanity-check every answer. A conductor size that seems implausible usually is, and noticing that is a real skill.
• Keep your worked examples. They are the best revision material you will have.

Union and non-union registered apprenticeship — what actually differs

Daytona State runs two parallel registered electrical apprenticeships, and this course belongs to the non-union (merit shop) track. Both are legitimate routes to the same trade, and the distinction is worth understanding factually rather than as a matter of allegiance.

• Both are registered apprenticeships recognised through the Florida Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor, and both produce a nationally portable completion credential.
• The sponsor differs. Union programmes are typically run by a joint labour-management committee; non-union programmes are typically sponsored by a contractor association or by an individual employer.
• Employment works differently. Union apprentices are generally dispatched to signatory contractors through the local; non-union apprentices are generally employed directly by a single contractor, and your progress is tied to that employer keeping you on.
• Wages and benefits are structured differently — collectively bargained scales and benefit funds on one side, employer-set pay and benefits on the other. Compare the whole package, not the hourly rate alone.
• The curriculum is broadly comparable, and in this institution's case the two tracks share their early content closely and diverge in the later levels — see the sequence note.
• The licence is the same. Journeyman and contractor licensing in Florida does not distinguish between the tracks; what matters is documented hours, completion, and the examination.
• ⚠ Choose on the specifics available to you — which sponsor is accepting applicants, which contractors are hiring, the wage progression, and the quality of the training — rather than on general reputation. Ask to speak to current apprentices in either programme before deciding.

The Daytona State non-union electrical apprenticeship sequence

The non-union track runs classroom courses paired with Lab-OJT courses carrying the on-the-job training hours. Levels 1 to 8 use the BCA035n numbers and levels 9 to 12 the BCA034n numbers:

⚠ Two catalog points worth knowing. First, BCA0340 is titled "Electrical Apprentice 9 (Union)" although it sits in the non-union number range and its own paired laboratory BCA0340L is titled "(Non-Union)" — the "(Union)" appears to be an error. Second, BCA0355L is published at 639 clock hours rather than the 639.9 used by every other summer term in this prefix. Both figures above are the catalog's own; confirm with the programme.

Classroom hours change partway through the track — the earlier levels are published at 72 clock hours and levels 9 to 11 at 99. OJT hours generally track the term, with fall and spring at 679.8 and summer at 639.9.

⚠ The two tracks share their early curriculum and diverge later. Non-union levels 1 to 5 cover substantially the same content as the union track's, but from level 7 the emphasis differs — the non-union track moves toward fire alarm, hazardous locations, auxiliary power, generators, and special occupancies, where the union track covers grounding and bonding, structured cabling, and motor controls in those terms. Neither is a subset of the other, and a transfer between tracks would need the sponsor's assessment.

⚠⚠ On-the-job training hours are the binding constraint — not your grades

• A registered apprenticeship has two separate obligations — related classroom instruction and on-the-job training hours — and neither substitutes for the other.
• You can pass every class and still not complete if you have not accumulated the required OJT hours. The classroom courses run 72 to 99 hours; the OJT courses run several hundred.
• Hours accrue only while you are employed by a participating contractor. ⚠ If you are laid off, your hours stop — and in the non-union track, where you are typically employed by a single contractor rather than dispatched, losing that job can stall your apprenticeship entirely. Tell the sponsor immediately.
• Breadth is required, not just total hours. Apprenticeship standards specify work processes — categories of work you must actually be exposed to, such as conduit installation, terminations, motor controls, service work, and troubleshooting. Years spent on one task do not satisfy the requirement.
• ⚠ Ask for the work you are missing. This matters particularly if your employer specialises — a contractor doing only residential rough-in cannot give you service or controls hours. Raise it early; nobody will notice the gap for you.
• Document your hours accurately and on time, and keep your own copy of everything. Employers change and records are lost; your file is what protects your progress.
• Report hours honestly. Falsifying an hour record is grounds for removal and it undermines the credential for everyone.

⚠⚠ The National Electrical Code is the book you will use for your whole career

• The NEC (NFPA 70) governs electrical installation in the United States, and in Florida it is adopted into the Florida Building Code with state amendments — so what governs here is the NEC as Florida has adopted it.
• ⚠ It is revised on a three-year cycle and jurisdictions adopt editions at different times. The edition in force where you are working is the one that governs, frequently not the newest.
• Learn to navigate it, not memorise it. Nobody memorises the NEC; the professional skill is finding the applicable article quickly and reading it precisely — and that is what journeyman examinations actually test.
• Tab your code book and use it constantly. Examinations are typically open-book under time pressure, so speed of lookup is the skill being assessed.
• Read the exact words. "Shall" and "shall be permitted" differ, and an exception can reverse the rule above it.
• Local amendments matter. A correct-by-the-book installation can still fail inspection under a local requirement.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies — verify the current adopted edition rather than relying on any course guide.

⚠⚠ Arc flash and shock — and the apprentice's particular exposure

• Electricity gives no second chance, and apprentices are at particular risk because they are least able to recognise a dangerous situation and least confident about refusing one.
• ⚠⚠ Arc flash is not shock. An arcing fault is an explosion — temperatures several times hotter than the surface of the sun, a pressure blast, molten metal, and permanent hearing damage. It burns through ordinary clothing instantly and synthetic fabric melts into skin.
• Arc-rated clothing is not optional near energised equipment, and cotton is not arc-rated. NFPA 70E defines the boundaries, the risk assessment, and the required protection.
• De-energise wherever possible. Working energised requires justification, a written procedure, and permission — and schedule pressure is not a justification, though it is exactly when incidents happen.
• Lock out, tag out, and verify yourself. Test the meter on a known live source, test the conductor, then test the meter again. A failed meter reading zero has killed people.
• Your own lock, your own key. Never remove another person's lock and never let anyone remove yours.
• ⚠⚠ You may refuse unsafe work. An apprentice told to do something they believe is unsafe should say so — to the journeyman, the foreman, and if necessary the sponsor. A good contractor supports that. No schedule is worth an injury.
• Falls kill more construction workers than anything else, and electricians spend a great deal of time on ladders, lifts, and scaffolds.
• ⚠ Florida heat is a genuine hazard — attics, unconditioned buildings, outdoor summer work. Confusion in the heat is an emergency, not tiredness, and the person affected is usually the last to notice.
• Report every injury and near miss, including your own mistakes.

⚠⚠ Florida electrical licensing — journeyman is county, contracting is state

• ⚠ Journeyman electrician licensing in Florida is generally handled at county or municipal level, not by the state. Requirements, examinations, and reciprocity vary, and a journeyman card from one county may not be recognised in the next.
• Electrical contracting is licensed by the state under Chapter 489, Part II, Florida Statutes, through DBPR and the Electrical Contractors' Licensing Board.
• Licensing does not distinguish between union and non-union apprenticeship. What matters is documented hours, completion, and the examination.
• You may work as an electrician for a licensed contractor without holding a contractor licence yourself.
• Contracting on your own account without the required licence is an offence with escalating penalties.
• Contractor licensure requires documented experience, examination, financial responsibility evidence, and insurance. The realistic sequence is apprenticeship, then journeyman, then contractor.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Verify with DBPR and with the county where you will work.

⚠⚠ This is a PSAV clock-hour apprenticeship course — it carries no college credit

• The leading zero in the course number is the signal. Under the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System, a 0000-level number denotes postsecondary adult vocational (PSAV) instruction, measured in clock hours rather than semester credit hours. These courses carry zero college credit.
• ⚠ A catalog may display the clock-hour figure under a heading that reads "credit hours." It is not credits — a 0000-level course showing 679.8 is 679.8 hours of instruction or on-the-job training.
• PSAV hours do not transfer as college credit to an associate or bachelor's degree, and they do not satisfy general education requirements.
• What this programme produces is a journeyman electrician — a nationally portable, well-paid skilled trade credential earned while working and being paid, without student debt.
• Some institutions offer articulation from apprenticeship completion into a related associate or construction management degree. ⚠ These arrangements are institution-specific and change — get it in writing before assuming.
• Financial aid rules differ for clock-hour programmes, though apprenticeship tuition is frequently paid or subsidised by the sponsor or employer.

BCA0342 is 99 clock hours, offered Spring at Daytona State, and is the classroom component of level 11 of the non-union electrical apprenticeship. ⚠ Clock hours carry no college credit.

Classroom instruction and on-the-job training are separate obligations and neither substitutes for the other. Keep your own copy of your hour record.