About the Wisconsin Journeyman Electrician license
Wisconsin licenses electricians through the Wisconsin Dept. of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS). The Journeyman Electrician license authorizes you to perform electrical work, generally under the responsibility of a master, supervising, or administrator electrician. SPS 305.44(3) lets you sit this examination after either a construction-electrician apprenticeship of at least 3 years that is approved by the U.S. Department of Labor or the Department of Workforce Development, or experience of not less than 48 months with at least 8,000 hours of installing, repairing, and maintaining electrical wiring. A degree or diploma from a 2-year electrical-engineering program, or from a 2-year accredited technical or vocational electrical program, counts as 12 months and 2,000 hours toward that 8,000. Residential journeyman and industrial journeyman are different licenses and different examinations. This course is only the statewide journeyman electrician examination.
The exam is open book, and the passing score on the DSPS journeyman electrician page is 70 percent. Pearson and DSPS locations allow only three reference groups: one binder holding SPS 305, SPS 316, and printed notes that are three-hole punched; the 2023 NEC codebook or handbook; and up to two printed bound reference books, such as Ugly's, Ferm's Fast Finder, a Tom Henry book, or a Mike Holt book. Tabs that come with a bound code book are allowed. Three-ring paper dividers with tabs are allowed. Loose paper, removable tabs, sticky notes, paperclips, and practice or previous exams used as notes are not allowed. Plan to tab the 2023 book before test day. The exam is as much a test of how fast you find 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 Wisconsin licensing works
- Experience: SPS 305.44(3): a construction-electrician apprenticeship of at least 3 years approved by the U.S. Department of Labor or the Department of Workforce Development, or not less than 48 months and at least 8,000 hours.
- Education credit: a 2-year electrical or electrical-related degree or diploma counts as 12 months and 2,000 hours toward that 8,000. It does not replace the examination.
- Application: apply in LicensE at license.wi.gov. SPS 305.44(2) requires the application and the examination fee in SPS 305.02 Table 305.02. You schedule only after DSPS finds you eligible.
- Exam: DSPS trades table: journeyman electrician, 100 questions, 4 hours, 24 hours of continuing education, 4-year term, expiration June 30. Open book. Passing score 70 percent. Sit at a DSPS site or at Pearson VUE. Not PSI. The code book in the room is the 2023 NEC.
- Renewal: SPS 305.44(6) and SPS 305.07. Renewal requires at least 24 hours of acceptable continuing education, entered by the course provider, before the license expires. A late continuing-education completion is a separate DSPS process. Do not invent the dollar amount of that late fee.
SPS 316.007 adopts NFPA 70, the 2023 National Electrical Code, including temporary interim amendments and errata issued before January 1, 2025, and then Subchapter IV changes that book. Wisconsin skipped the 2020 NEC. The ampacity table in the 2023 book is Table 310.16, not the retired 2017 table number 310.15(B)(16). The copper values you already know did not move: 10 AWG copper is 30 A at 60 degrees C, 35 A at 75 degrees C, and 40 A at 90 degrees C; 4 AWG copper is 95 A at 90 degrees C; 2 AWG copper is 130 A at 90 degrees C. What did change, and what Wisconsin then amended, is GFCI scope, AFCI extensions, island receptacles, emergency disconnects, rod electrodes, and dwelling-branch adjustment. Study the 2023 section, then read the SPS 316 section with the same article number.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
