Alaska Journeyman Electrician

Mechanical Inspection, part of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, writes and gives the Electrician Journeyman Certificate of Fitness exam itself, and you need 70% to pass (8 AAC 90.115). It does not publish the number of questions, the time limit or an outline. Prep providers report about 80 questions in 4 hours, open book with the 2020 NEC, but they disagree with each other, so treat that as a guide and confirm the format when Mechanical Inspection schedules you. Our practice exam is our own 80-question blueprint with a 4-hour limit.

8,000 hours of commercial or industrial electrical work earned while you held an Alaska electrician trainee certificate of fitness, or worked legally in another state. No more than 2,000 hours may be residential, and you can count up to 1,000 classroom hours from a registered apprenticeship or accredited program, up to 1,000 hours as a power lineman and up to 4,000 military or vocational hours. Maintenance hours do not count (8 AAC 90.160). Send the application, the $50 fee and your experience verification forms; once the packet is validated, Mechanical Inspection schedules your exam.

By appointment at the Mechanical Inspection offices in Anchorage, Juneau and Fairbanks. If you live elsewhere, you can ask in writing for another location; Mechanical Inspection may then refer you to an approved third-party test site or exam proctor at your expense. An Alaska union with an agreement on exam standards can also give its own exam (8 AAC 90.115).

You can retake the exam 30 days after the failed attempt (8 AAC 90.115(d)). Mechanical Inspection does not publish a limit on attempts.

Yes. Mechanical Inspection grants a reciprocal journeyman certificate of fitness, with no exam, if you have held a qualifying journeyman license for a full year in a state it lists as substantially similar, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Minnesota, Texas and about two dozen more (8 AAC 90.111). It costs $50 plus $200 and renews as a standard certificate. A one-year provisional certificate lets you work while the reciprocal application is processed, but you cannot supervise trainees on it.

Every two years, for $200. You need 16 hours of approved continuing education in the 24 months before renewal: at least 8 hours on changes to the NEC and no more than 8 hours industry related (8 AAC 90.192). You can renew without re-examination up to two years after the certificate expires, but you cannot work on an expired certificate (8 AAC 90.180).

Mechanical Inspection does not say. Our blueprint includes three questions on Alaska’s certificate of fitness rules (AS 18.62 and 8 AAC 90), which every journeyman needs to know anyway: carrying your certificate on the job, the two-trainees-per-journeyman ratio, direct supervision, renewal and continuing education.

The 2020 NEC. Alaska adopts it by reference with no amendments (8 AAC 70.025(a)), and PSI’s Electrical Administrator bulletin lists the 2020 NEC and says code questions follow only the listed edition. No move to the 2023 NEC has been announced. Every question here cites the 2020 section, so if your study material is on the 2023 edition, watch the rules that moved, such as the load-calculation tables and Class 1 circuits.

They are different credentials. Anyone doing electrical work under the NEC in Alaska needs a certificate of fitness from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Mechanical Inspection: a trainee card while you earn hours, then the journeyman certificate after the Mechanical Inspection exam. An electrical contractor must be, or employ, an electrical administrator licensed by the Department of Commerce, who supervises and certifies the work (AS 08.18.026; AS 08.40.195). The administrator exam is given by PSI.