Checked against primary sources 2026-09-05
Durham County
Durham NC Electrician License: Classes and the Exam
Durham holds the training center that serves the whole Triangle, plus a community college diploma with a published price. The examination itself is sat in Raleigh, and the license behind all of it is the state's.
Test yourself: thirty free questions, timed
On this page
The license a Durham electrician needs
The license is the state's, not the city's. G.S. 87-43 says no person, partnership, firm or corporation may engage in electrical contracting in North Carolina without a license in the applicable classification from the State Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors, and there is no state journeyman or apprentice card underneath it.
If you work for somebody else, G.S. 87-43.1 exempts a bona fide employee of a Board licensee, so your employer's license covers your work. If you want to contract in your own name, the route is hours, the $125 application and examination fee, a grade of 70 on the examination and then the license application with its annual fee of $100 to $200.
What the city and county handle
Permits and inspections are local, licensing is not. We did not read a Durham permitting page this session, so this page does not say whether the city or county asks for anything of its own beyond the state license.
Ask the city's inspections department before you assume either way, and expect the code enforced to be the statewide one. The Office of State Fire Marshal lists the 2020 North Carolina Electrical Code as the current code, effective November 1, 2021.
Where to train in Durham
- Raleigh-Durham Electrical Training Institute, 324 Blackwell Street, Suite 900 PMB 157, Durham, NC 27701. A state registered four year curriculum with a minimum of 900 classroom hours and 8,000 hours of work based learning, covering theory, the National Electrical Code, OSHA safety, blueprints, motor controls, fire alarm systems and programmable logic controllers. Completers receive state and national journey level certifications, a North Carolina Department of Community Colleges completion certificate and the National JATC completion certificate.
- Durham Technical Community College, Electrical Systems Technology Diploma, three semesters and 37 credit hours at an estimated cost of $3,810 on the Main Campus. The first semester covers print reading, DC and AC electricity, residential wiring, the National Electrical Code and algebra and trigonometry.
- Durham Tech also lists a Control Electrician certificate and a Construction Electrician certificate under the same program.
The training institute is the IBEW and NECA route for the Triangle, and its apprentices are employed while they train.
Where Durham candidates sit the exam
There is no PSI site in Durham. The nearest one on the Board's list is Raleigh, 5711 Six Forks Road, Suite 208, Raleigh, NC 27609, about half an hour down the road.
The full list in the Examination Information Handbook is Asheville, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greenville, Raleigh, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
The Limited, Intermediate and Unlimited paper is 100 multiple choice questions with a maximum of six hours, open book, and the pass mark is a grade of 70.
What the work pays around Durham
O*NET OnLine, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data, gives a median of $28.47 an hour or $59,220 a year for electricians in the Durham-Chapel Hill metro. Of the eight metros this site keeps a page for, that is the largest figure. It is not the largest on the O*NET page, which puts the Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC area at $29.98 an hour.
The BLS May 2025 metro release for Durham-Chapel Hill puts construction and extraction occupations at 2.2 percent of local employment with a mean hourly wage of $27.50.
The two figures measure different things. The first is a median for electricians, and the second covers every construction and extraction occupation in the metro, so do not read them as a range for the same job.
Your next move in Durham
Work first, class second. G.S. 87-43.1 covers you as an employee of a Board licensee, and you can check any employer on the Board's public search.
Then pick the route that fits your week. Apprenticeship time in an approved North Carolina program credits at 100 percent as secondary experience, and course work in the National Electrical Code credits at 50 percent.
Questions people ask
Do I need a Durham city electrician license?
The state Board license is the one the statute requires. We did not read a Durham permitting page this session, so we cannot say whether the city or county asks for anything of its own. Call the city inspections department before you assume.
Where do Durham candidates take the NC electrical exam?
In Raleigh. The Board's Examination Information Handbook lists no PSI site in Durham, and the nearest is 5711 Six Forks Road, Suite 208, Raleigh, NC 27609.
What does the Durham Tech electrical diploma cost?
Durham Technical Community College lists the Electrical Systems Technology Diploma as three semesters and 37 credit hours at an estimated cost of $3,810. The college also offers Control Electrician and Construction Electrician certificates.
Is the Raleigh-Durham Electrical Training Institute in Durham?
Yes. Its address is 324 Blackwell Street, Suite 900 PMB 157, Durham, NC 27701. It runs a state registered four year curriculum with a minimum of 900 classroom hours and 8,000 hours of work based learning.
How much do electricians make in Durham?
O*NET OnLine, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data, gives a median of $28.47 an hour or $59,220 a year for the Durham-Chapel Hill metro. The BLS May 2025 release puts all construction and extraction occupations there at a mean of $27.50 an hour.
What do I get at the end of the Durham apprenticeship?
The training institute says completers receive state and national journey level certifications, a North Carolina Department of Community Colleges completion certificate and the National JATC completion certificate. None of those is a state contracting license.
Thirty free questions, timed, with the working shown
Every miss comes back with the arithmetic worked out and the code section named, so you learn the trap and not just the answer. No account.
All questions here are original. They are not actual exam questions, and no question bank can promise you a pass.
What this page cites
- G.S. 87-43.1 Exempts a person doing electrical work as a bona fide employee of a Board licensee. source
- Raleigh-Durham Electrical Training Institute Publishes the Durham address, the four year curriculum and the credentials issued at completion. source
- Durham Technical Community College Publishes the diploma length, the credit hours and the estimated cost. source
- Examination Information Handbook Lists the seven PSI sites in the state, none of them in Durham. source
- O*NET OnLine local wages for 47-2111 Gives the Durham-Chapel Hill median for electricians, citing Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 wage data. source
- BLS Durham metro release, May 2025 Gives the construction and extraction mean hourly wage and its share of local employment. source
The 2023 to 2026 section crosswalk maps every section that moved, both directions, $29 once.