10.1 Skilled Trades Regulation Act: License Classes, Scope & Supervision

10.1 Skilled Trades Regulation Act: License Classes, Scope & Supervision

Exam Focus: MCL 339.5701–339.5739, the statutory definitions in 339.5703, the four individual electrical credentials, contractor licensure and the qualifying master electrician, and the scope boundaries between journeyman, master, and specialty licenses.

The PSI Candidate Information Bulletin says the journeyman examination tests "an individual's knowledge of the skilled trades regulation act, any rules promulgated under the skilled trades regulation act." Most candidates spend all their preparation inside the NEC and none inside Act 407. That is a mistake — the act is one of only four references you are allowed to bring, and it is short enough to read in an evening.

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What Act 407 Is

2016 PA 407, the Skilled Trades Regulation Act, is codified at MCL 339.5101 and following, with the electrical article at MCL 339.5701 through 339.5739. It took effect April 4, 2017. The act consolidated Michigan's separate trade licensing statutes — plumbing, mechanical, boiler, elevator, and electrical — into one chapter of the Occupational Code. The former Electrical Administrative Act, 1956 PA 217, was folded in; its electrical administrative board was preserved by MCL 339.5705 and is designated "the board" for the electrical article.

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Statutory Definitions You Are Expected to Know (MCL 339.5703)

[!IMPORTANT] The $100 line matters. Because "minor repair work" is defined by dollar value rather than by task, an exam item can describe a small repair and ask whether licensure or a permit is triggered. Read the value, not the difficulty of the work.

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The Michigan Electrical Credentials

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                 MICHIGAN ELECTRICAL LICENSE STRUCTURE                   |
|                                                                         |
|  INDIVIDUAL LICENSES                  BUSINESS / CONTRACTOR LICENSES    |
|  --------------------                 -----------------------------     |
|  Electrical Journeyman        <---->  Electrical Contractor             |
|  Master Electrician           <---->  Fire Alarm Contractor             |
|  Fire Alarm Specialty Tech    <---->  Sign Specialty Contractor         |
|  Sign Specialist                                                        |
|                                                                         |
|  A contractor license requires a QUALIFYING MASTER (or the equivalent   |
|  specialty licensee) who is responsible for the firm's installations.   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Journeyman vs. Master — the Functional Test

The statute draws the line at supervision, not at skill:

• A journeyman engages in the practical installation or alteration of electrical wiring and equipment.
• A master has the qualifications to supervise installation, and is the individual a contracting firm relies on to answer for code compliance.

A master electrician may of course perform installation work as well; the license is additive. But only the master may serve as the responsible supervising individual.

Contractor Licensure and the Qualifying Master

An electrical contractor license authorizes a person to engage in the business of erecting, installing, altering, repairing, servicing, or maintaining electrical wiring, devices, appliances, or equipment. Under MCL 339.5713, the contractor must have a master electrician who qualifies the license, and a single master electrician's license cannot satisfy the qualifying requirement for more than one electrical contractor license at the same time. This prevents one master's credential from being rented out across several firms.

The Specialty Credentials

• Fire alarm specialty technician — installs, alters, and repairs fire alarm systems and related wiring. Note that the fire alarm examination is a separate PSI examination with its own question count and its own subject list.
• Sign specialist — an individual whose principal occupation is electric sign work. The "related wiring" definition above draws the exact boundary: the sign specialist owns the wiring downstream of the sign disconnect; installing the disconnect and its line-side connections is electrical work.

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Supervision and the Jobsite

The supervision rules are why the "jobsite" definition exists. Supervision obligations are measured per jobsite, and the definition confines a jobsite to the immediate work area within the property lines of a single project. Two buildings on separate parcels are two jobsites even if one contractor is running both; a large campus under one property description is one.

[!CAUTION] Common distractor. Items will offer a plausible-sounding definition of jobsite based on distance ("within one mile"), travel time, or "within sight." The statute uses property lines of a single project. Pick the statutory language.

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Where This Shows Up on the Exam

1. Definition matching — master electrician, minor repair work, jobsite, outline lighting, related wiring.
2. Scope questions — which licensee may legally perform a described task, and which credential the firm needs.
3. Qualifying-master questions — whether one master can qualify two contractor licenses (no).
4. Article-boundary questions — sign work under Article 600 versus building wiring, using the "related wiring" definition as the dividing line.

Because you are permitted to bring a bound copy of 2016 PA 407 into the examination, the winning technique is to know the layout of the act — definitions in the 5703 range, board in 5705, license requirements in the 5707–5719 range — so you can find a definition in seconds without tabs, which are not permitted in the printed documents.