Education · 1 of 5

The path

An apprenticeship, not a degree. You are employed the whole way through.

1. 1

   High school diploma or GED (General Educational Development certificate)

   Grade 12

   Algebra and shop classes are what programs actually look at. You also need to be 18 and able to pass a drug test and a physical.

2. 2

   Get accepted into a registered apprenticeship

   Weeks to a year of waiting

   Either through a union local or a fire protection contractor that runs its own program. This is the hard step, and intakes are often once a year.

3. 3

   Work and study together

   4 to 5 years

   Roughly 2,000 hours a year on the job plus about 144 hours of classroom instruction a year, which is the standard shape of a registered apprenticeship.

4. 4

   Finish as a journeyman

   After your hours

   You have logged 8,000 or so hours of installing, testing and servicing systems and you can now work unsupervised.

5. 5

   Add certification and licensing

   Ongoing

   NICET (National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies) certification for layout and inspection work, plus whatever license your state requires.