But, it's a decent amount of time, effort and money to do so.As for a GC license, they don't teach you anything about contracting when you take those courses -- in fact, in most places, you need to have a lot of experience and apprenticeships in contracting before you'll even be considered for a GC license.

The best way to learn is by apprenticeship, or otherwise you will learn through school of hard knocks like I did.

Originally posted by @David Begley:However, I will argue all day long that these requirements, and especially the 2-4 year required apprenticeships combined with exams as @J Scott noted were the hardest he's ever seen, will weed out the most egregious hacks that otherwise would be ripping off both consumers and rehabbers.  

Do you have to go to college, vocational, apprenticeship?

I started in the Portland market at 23( 9 years ago) finishing up a 4 year carpenter apprenticeship working full time going to school for finance in the evenings at PCC, Army national guard on the weekends.

I went through a local apprenticeship for low voltage electrical work (telecommunications), where I worked side by side with electricians, and other trades.

Not many other fields allow for this kind of "salary" without any formal education and/or years of formal apprenticeship to get to that level.You have to put in a lot of time and effort and really bust your hump to get there.

I'm entering my second year of Electrical apprenticeship so once I become certified I'll have that to offer to other investors as well as contractors.  

So it's sort of on-the-job training, or an apprenticeship if you will.Some of the requests are easily seen as necessary.

Invest the $200 there and then get them to everyone you see, talk to and know.Team up with someone looking for a Mentor or an Apprenticeship Program and then give them tasks to do and share in the profits of the Team's labor.The system should be easy so you don't have as many moving parts and can better manage your Time (your most valuable asset).