Sooner or later, someone who apprenticed with you will ask for a letter. On Long Island, a master electrician license in Suffolk County requires at least seven years of experience in the trade within the past ten years, and boards want that experience confirmed. Here’s how to write a letter that does its job.
First, find out what the board wants
Ask your former apprentice which license they’re applying for and where: Suffolk County, or a town or village in Nassau (see who issues licenses in Nassau). If the board has its own experience form or affidavit, use it. A form the board recognizes gets through faster than a letter it has to interpret.
What to include
Licensing boards’ experience forms commonly ask for:
- The applicant’s full name
- Your business name, address and phone
- Your name, title, and license type and number (with the dates it was valid while they worked for you)
- Their start and end dates with you
- Their total hours, or hours per year
- The kind of work they did (residential, commercial, service; wiring, panels, conduit) and their role
- That they worked under your (or a licensed employee’s) supervision
- Your signature and the date
Make it hold up
- Use your letterhead if you’re writing a letter rather than filling in a form.
- Get it notarized if the board asks. Many experience affidavits must be signed in front of a notary.
- Back it with records. Some boards want hours supported by employer records or W-2s. Give totals you can prove.
- Only confirm what you saw. If they worked for you for two years, say two years. The board checks.
The real work happens years earlier
Writing the letter takes ten minutes if you have the records, and days of digging if you don’t. The easiest way is a log of every workday, approved while the apprentice works for you.
With FirstHand, your apprentices log each day and you approve the week. Years later, the dates, hours and shop are already written down and signed off, for your letter and their application.