Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24

Texas electrician continuing education, exactly as the rule is written

Four hours, every year, in three subjects, from a provider TDLR has registered. The rule does not say how the four hours split between the subjects, and that surprises people. Here is what 16 TAC 73.25 actually requires, quoted.

The requirement in one sentence

Every year, most Texas electrical license holders must complete four hours of continuing education covering the National Electrical Code, Texas law and rules, and workplace safety under NFPA 70E. There is no tiering. A master electrician and a first-year apprentice owe the same four hours.

For each renewal, an electrical apprentice, electrical sign apprentice, journeyman electrician, master electrician, journeyman sign electrician, master sign electrician, residential wireman, journeyman lineman, maintenance electrician, or journeyman industrial electrician must complete four hours of continuing education.

16 TAC 73.25(b)

Ten license types, one number. Nothing in the rule scales the hours to the level of the license, to the years held, or to whether you work.

It is annual, not biennial

This is the detail that costs people their license. A Texas electrical license runs one year, not two.

A license issued under this chapter is valid for one year from the date of issuance and must be renewed annually.

16 TAC 73.22(a)

So the four hours come due every twelve months. Someone who moved from a state on a two-year cycle and assumes Texas works the same way is late before they know it.

For a timely renewal, the continuing education hours must have been completed within the term of the current license. For a late renewal, the continuing education hours must have been completed within one year prior to the date of renewal.

Where the four hours have to come from

A course you found on your own does not count. TDLR states it plainly on its continuing education page: courses have to come from a registered TDLR provider, and unapproved courses do not count toward the hours for renewal.

Behind that sits the approval machinery. 16 TAC 59.30(a) has each continuing education course approved by the department before a provider may offer it, and 16 TAC 59.30(j) leaves the number of credit hours for the department to decide when it approves the course.

The practical version: check the provider and the course number before you pay, not after. A course that was approved last cycle and was not renewed is an unapproved course.

Who is exempt, and why the usual explanation is wrong

Four license types are absent from the rule and owe no continuing education: Electrical Contractor, Electrical Sign Contractor, Residential Appliance Installation Contractor and Residential Appliance Installer.

The first three are business licenses, and that is the explanation everyone reaches for. It does not cover the fourth. Residential Appliance Installer is an individual license held by a person, it sits on the fee schedule beside the journeyman electrician at the same thirty dollars, and it is still off the continuing education list.

Contractors and Residential Appliance Installers are not required to complete continuing education.

TDLR, Electricians, Continuing Education

So the working test is not individual against business. It is whether the license type is named in 16 TAC 73.25(b), and ten of the fourteen are.

A one-person shop usually holds a contractor license and a master license together. The contractor license is exempt. The master license underneath it is not.

The three subjects, and the split nobody mandates

The rule names three subjects, and 16 TAC 73.25(g) has an approved course dedicated to all three rather than to whichever one the provider prefers.

• The National Electrical Code as adopted under Occupations Code 1305.101, or the current version approved by NFPA
• State law and rules that regulate the conduct of licensees
• Safety as defined in NFPA 70E

The first of those has a seam in it worth knowing about in a year when the adopted edition changes. The rule accepts either the edition Texas has adopted or the current NFPA edition, so a course written to the newer book is compliant before the state catches up to it.

TDLR splits the middle subject in two when it describes the requirement, into the Occupations Code chapter that creates the license and the administrative rules chapter that runs it. That is the same subject counted more finely, not a fourth one.

What the rule does not do is allocate the four hours among them. There is no two hours here, one hour there. The provider proposes a split in the course application and the department assigns the credit hours on approval, so two approved four-hour courses can weight the subjects very differently and both be compliant. If a particular subject is where you feel weakest, read the course outline before you buy.

You cannot take the same course twice

A licensee may not receive continuing education credit for attending the same course more than once.

16 TAC 73.25(e)

On an annual cycle this matters more than it sounds. It means every year needs different material, which is why providers publish new code-change courses each cycle and why the cheapest option is not always available to you twice.

Apprentices have a second path

An electrical apprentice or electrical sign apprentice can skip the four hours by enrolling in a department-registered apprenticeship training program instead. Enrollment, not completion, is what satisfies the rule for that renewal.

To be registered, a program has to be recognized by the Texas Workforce Commission or the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, registered with the United States Department of Labor, or run as a competency-based standardized craft-training program meeting Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship standards.

That is the only variation by license type anywhere in the rule. Every other named license owes the four hours in the same form.

Keep your certificate for a year

The licensee, not the provider, carries the record-keeping duty.

A licensee shall retain a copy of the certificate of completion for a course for one year after the date of completion.

16 TAC 73.25(f)

TDLR may examine those records during any inspection or investigation. The provider has duties of its own under 16 TAC 59.51, including issuing your certificate and reporting the completion to the department on fixed deadlines, and none of that replaces the copy you are holding.

TDLR publishes a lookup so a licensee can check whether reported hours arrived. If they have not, the provider is who to chase.

What an hour means

A continuing education hour is fifty minutes of actual instruction, so a four-hour course is two hundred minutes of content. A course that runs shorter than that is not a four-hour course regardless of what it is called.

What this page cites

• 16 TAC 73.25 Continuing education for Texas electricians, the ten license types it names, and the course standard at subsection (g). Read in full 24 August 2026. source
• 16 TAC 73.22 License term and annual renewal. source
• 16 TAC 59.30 Course approval at (a), department-assigned credit hours at (j), and the fifty minute hour at (k). source
• 16 TAC 59.51 Provider responsibilities, including certificates of completion and reporting completions to the department. source
• TDLR, Electricians, Continuing Education The exemption sentence quoted above, the subject list, and the statement that courses have to come from a registered TDLR provider. Read 24 August 2026. source