The apprenticeship program I went through back in the day required a sponsor (the company you worked for) who would verify the hours worked as you went to night school. After 4 years of both in trade experience and passing night school, they would count each hour in trade experience times 2, and you would have the hours in field necessary to take the journeyman's exam. Then you would take the results of that exam to a municipality or county, apply, and they would give you a journeyman's card.
Nowadays just slightly different, in that you have to go to the municipality or county first with your schooling record and proof of time in trade, pay them for the exam cost, and then they sponsor you.Then you can go sit for the exam, pass it, and get your journeyman's card.
Since I have more than enough time in trade, I wouldn't have had to produce proof of schooling.
But, my local county doesn't sponsor for the journeyman's exam, only for the master exam. I had the required experience being responsible for projects, got a letter from my day job company attesting to that, and took my master's exam.
As I recall, the requirements to take the master's exam were (don't quote me) 8 years in field with a certain amount of that being a foreman, superintendant.
To actually get the license required that you pass the exam, pay lots of fees (none of them huge), pass a background check and a credit check, get fingerprinted, obtain insurances, an occupational license, and probably a couple of things that I am forgetting.