About the Rhode Island Journeyman Electrician license
Rhode Island licenses electricians through the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT), Division of Professional Regulation, under the Board of Examiners of Electricians. The Journeyman Electrician license authorizes you to perform electrical work, generally as an employee of a licensed electrical contractor and under the supervision the board's regulations require. You earn it by meeting the experience-and-education requirement — a combination of documented on-the-job hours and approved classroom instruction, or completion of an approved apprenticeship — and passing the trade exam.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Rhode Island adopts the NEC as its electrical code. 260-RICR-30-15-7.5(C) disqualifies notes or books except by board permission. Treat it as closed book unless your DLT letter permits a listed NEC edition. A clean bound copy is what you study at home, not what you assume is on the desk. The adopted NEC edition. Tabs and highlighting are usually permitted; loose or handwritten notes usually are not — confirm the current rule with DLT before test day. Plan to tab and index your code book before test day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.
How Rhode Island licensing works
- Experience: a registered apprenticeship of at least 8,000 hours over a minimum of four years, plus 144 hours per year of related classroom instruction (R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-6-24), with the senior (master) license requiring journeyman time on top of that base. Accredited trade-school hours or qualifying college coursework in electrical technology can count toward part of the classroom requirement.
- Education: approved instruction hours or completion of an approved apprenticeship program count toward the journeyman experience that underlies the master credential.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
- Exam administration: the exam is administered directly by DLT's Board of Examiners of Electricians — not an outside testing vendor — on a first-come, first-served basis at DLT's office. The passing score is 70 percent (scores of 60-69 percent may qualify for a review before the board); confirm the current format, question count, and time limit with DLT Professional Regulation before you apply.
- Renewal: licenses renew every two years, on the licensee's birthday, and require 15 hours of board-approved continuing education covering current NEC/ICC code content.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition with DLT — Rhode Island's electrical code currently adopts the 2023 NEC, effective December 1, 2025. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
