Exploring the Future of Electrical Engineering: The Role of Government Apprenticeships in Addressing Innovations and Challenges

1. Introduction

1.1. Background and Significance

The field of electrical engineering is inescapably intertwined with society’s almost universal reliance on electrical and electronic devices. What has been called a technology gap exists between capabilities created by electrical engineering innovation and applications that are socially supported by this engineering capability. This holds special significance for institutions that either directly or indirectly fund research or take it to the market. Technology initiatives may rise to address innovations and problems in the electrical engineering field, but not without the assistance of competent electrical engineers. In educating future practitioners to address the challenges of scale, complexity, and reliability, employers have found a solution in government-funded apprenticeships.

Government apprenticeship schemes directly address many applications for electrical engineering innovation and findings in schools. However, prospective practitioners arrive with a pre-admissions view of this awkwardly varied field, dauntingly vast in content alone. A prospective civil engineer may live with a mental model of their future role that involves building bridges, but students attracted to electrical engineering have no such concrete image. Unprepared for their initial tasks, they have the highest dropout rate of all engineering disciplines. The colleges and departments of engineering most heavily involved in knowledge transfer also have the highest average dropout rates. But the problem need not exist. By now, most schools feel that they have figured it out enough to give an account of their approach. Within these approaches, flexibility is often noted. While they may be in a different context, schools of engineering and sciences, some of the solutions suggest ways forward for all institutions involved in initiatives to address the technology gap.

The purpose is to account for a variety of institutional responses to the technology gap and the challenges of scale, complexity, and reliability, focus on how the output of this research has found its way back to schools, and describe initiatives that have arisen from this interaction. Such initiatives are proposed as an important element in evaluating research that is socially viable and subject to wider acute awareness, public debate, and concern, a need exacerbated by the eagerness of the electrical engineering industry to exploit the capacity for positive social or environmental change. Electrical engineering has a key role in the development of safety and performance standards, commonly a significant barrier to entry or acceptance of new technologies, and on the ethics of inherent or attachable risks.

1.1. Background and Significance

In recent decades, rapid advances in electrical engineering have led to numerous innovations, enabling the incorporation of new technologies into both consumer and industrial settings. The 21st century has witnessed notably swift advancements in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, quantum computing, and renewable energy. Meanwhile, innovations in traditional talents cultivated by educational and training systems have fallen behind. As a consequence, employers are now severely hampered by shortages of trained practitioners to support the commercialization and maintenance of innovations, and the upskilling or reskilling of further cohorts of trained practitioners. In particular, the electrical engineering profession has faced challenges associated with recent innovations, in addition to the problems common across other engineering professions, caused primarily by rapid technical changes. (Pennisi, 2022)

The anticipated effects of rapid advances on the workforce in the engineering professions include widening skill gaps across individual organizations, firms, and sectors; greater workforce churn and job dissolution; the creation of entirely novel roles; and the tendency for employment growth to initially be concentrated in metropolitan areas, facilitating the movement of individuals across jobs, organizations, and sectors, but subsequently becoming more diffusely spread over all areas as workplaces, roles, and skills mature. Additionally, the passage of time is likely to result in expectations of heightening constraints on the ability of educational and training systems to effectively meet the expectations of the workforce. Government-operated apprenticeships in electrical engineering align with workforce expectations and are pivotal for the emergence of practical solutions that address the competition experienced by other educational and training systems. (Ximenes & Araujo2022)

The practice of government-operated apprenticeships is established in various countries, where all participating employers, regardless of field, size, or location, are granted monetary support. Over decades, employer cohorts have become self-organizing, collaboratively determining education and training parameters and obligations. This approach allows innovative modifications to remain responsive to emerging challenges, without government intervention. Meanwhile, employers have limited influence over the coarser, one-size-fits-all standards enforced on all firms, providers, and industries by the national educational and training systems, which oversee and sanction up to an entire cohort's participation. Such systems often struggle to remain responsive to changes unfolding at a rapid pace, such as in electrical engineering. (Ximenes & Araujo2022)(Zoellner2022)

1.2. Purpose and Scope

The primary aim of this essay is to explore the challenges arising from advancements in electrical engineering technologies on a global scale and to discuss how government apprenticeships in such fields can be utilized in Norway and elsewhere. A myriad of developments, including positive changes such as sustainable energy generation and storage, as well as concerns regarding hacking, privacy invasion, and regional conflicts due to sophisticated armaments, are anticipated. An emphasis on how engineering education can adjust to the dynamically evolving scenario is paramount. (Smith, 2023)

In Norway, discussions on educational reforms face restrictions in scope and timing. Consequently, the active participation of electrical engineering departments in universities may fall behind in innovation and public concern. Crafting a well-considered plan for government apprenticeships to swiftly shift the focus and contents of electrical engineering education is essential. Such a plan would guarantee the capability of effectively processing both impending challenges and beneficial developments. Furthermore, it is justifiable to demand financing for such actions, as they would not only benefit Norway but also contribute positively to global issues, hence bringing economic advantages to the country in the long run.

The composition of the plan is generally applicable to any country. However, it has been tailored to apply primarily to Norway, where no similarly comprehensive action plan has been considered previously. The essay begins with an overview of recent developments in electrical engineering and anticipated advances, changing the educational requirements on society and electrical engineering university education. The second part discusses government apprenticeships to meet the new requirements, aiming at ensuring that electrical engineers can understand and work with power, constructs, hardware and software, and infrastructures at all relevant levels. Potential topics for government apprenticeships are listed to ensure the coherence, proactivity, versatility, and impact of the education on society. The essay concludes with a summary of the plan. (Reinar & Lundberg2024)

2. Foundations of Electrical Engineering

The foundations of electrical engineering are intertwined with the origins of electricity, electrical machines, and electronics. Concise treatment is given to each of these subjects and the resulting subdivisions of electrical engineering. Historical milestones are emphasized to equate the disciplines with the community’s awareness of the exploitations made upon the underlying phenomena. The vast scale of electronics asks for some explanation of its own consequences for the profession.

Electrical engineering is largely concerned with the phenomena associated with electricity. Hence, it would not be unreasonable to start building its foundations from electricity itself. However, historical awareness of electricity is scant, and its modeling under classical electrostatics is quite recent, having started only during the second half of the 18th century. There was awareness of action-at-a-distance between electrified bodies long before this modeling, but this was vague somehow. The mathematical treatment that followed did bring clarity, so it starts from there. It was taken to Europe from the U.S. by Franklin in 1759. The potential spread, in turn, inspired the invention of the Leyden jar in 1745. (Deckelman, 2024)

Much practical knowledge resulted from this theoretical treatment. From the many discoveries, two were of paramount importance, namely, the possibility of generating electricity mechanically by rubbing glass and amber, and the possibility of generating electricity also chemically. The latter discovery gave birth to the batteries of Volta, which constituted an abundant source of low-voltage electricity. The discharge of a Leyden jar supplied high-voltage electricity, which provoked great social interest and curiosity. There were also many attempts to apply electricity for possible telecommunication. The first successful one was performed in 1800 in Copenhagen, seven years after the discovery of the law of force.

2.1. Historical Overview

The foundations of electrical engineering consist of the scientific and technological substructures of the discipline. The history of electrical engineering reveals technological advancements or major innovations that established the substructures. The evolution of electrical engineering from its protohistoric forms in the late eighteenth century to 2019 is sketched based on a compilation of the historical developments, scientific theories, and innovative technologies during this interval. (Marques et al.2022)

This historical overview is based on the compilation of the milestones, achievements, innovations, discoveries, inventions, and technological advancements in electrical engineering from its beginning to modern times. It addresses the major technical breakthroughs or events associated with electrical engineering development. The main focus is on electrical technological innovation, while historical inventions that did not involve technological advancement are excluded. (Khan et al.2020)

The historical milestones are classified into 11 groups corresponding to the fundamental electrical engineering disciplines or subfields. To assist interested researchers and practitioners who wish to review the state-of-the-art technological innovations, there is a detailed exposition of the milestones, including innovative technologies and applications, the contributed scientific theories, and the renowned researchers and engineers with their achievements. Within the scope of electrical engineering, a broad range of applications, devices, and systems that wield electricity and/or elicit electrical phenomena are accommodated.

The coverage of the foundational developments of electrical engineering is broader than previous historical investigations. A thorough examination of the past electrical technological innovations and advancements with regard to electrical engineering disciplines reveals the technical origin and historic development of the discipline. The understanding of the foundations of electrical engineering in advanced and developing societies is beneficial for national planning programs in science and technology, donations of funds or effort in research and education programs in electrical engineering or related fields, and allocation of industrial investments and development. The past electrical technological advancements and innovations that have yielded electrical engineering disciplines are not only of historical interest but also provide insight and caution for anticipating the future of electrical engineering. (Rahimullah et al.2020)

2.2. Key Concepts and Principles

The field of electrical engineering encompasses a rich tapestry of concepts, principles, and theories critical for inventing, designing, and developing electrical and electronic systems and devices. Electric charge, a central concept, underpins electromagnetism, with static charge giving rise to electric fields and forces. Current, the flow of charges, powers many electrical and electronic circuits, while potential difference drives charge movement. Ohm's law, a foundational principle, relates voltage, current, and resistance in electrical components, particularly resistors. (Arora & Mosch, 2022)

Magnetic fields arise from electric currents and exert forces on charges, leading to devices like motors and generators. Inductance describes how changing currents induce voltages, a principle harnessed in transformers and energy storage. Various components, including conductors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits, form electrical circuits and systems. Voltage sources supply energy, while signal sources produce AC or digital signals for processing or transmission. Circuit analysis techniques, such as nodal analysis and theorems, help determine circuit behavior. Linear circuit theory analyzes circuits where voltages and currents are related linearly, while frequency domain analysis studies circuits' behavior concerning sinusoidal signals. (Boyer, 2023)

Circuit synthesis designs circuits to meet specifications, may be passive without active elements, require creative knowledge of component principles and values, and can be challenging. Circuit theorems help analyze complex networks, and electrical signals convey information—continuous-time signals change over time; discrete-time signals vary at distinct moments, complicating communication or processing. Random signals are unpredictable with statistical analysis. (Schmitt et al.2021)

Time-domain analysis studies signal evolution over time using the impulse response. Its Fourier transform converts signals to the frequency domain, representing them as sinusoids at various frequencies, simplifying circuit analysis or designing filters to store or modify specific frequency components. Modern electrical engineering also embraces systems theory and signal processing, defining systems that transform signals, decomposing them into simpler or modifying components.

3. Innovations in Electrical Engineering

The field of electrical engineering has always been, and will continue to be, at the forefront of technical innovation. However, engineers must be prepared to meet new challenges, including an increasing diversity of disciplines and a requirement for lifelong learning. Graduates of electrical engineering programs must be trained not only in technical content, but also in the capacity to adapt to and help guide that changing environment. Technical innovation requires creativity, and creative thinking techniques must be an integral part of the education. Continuing education programs must also be implemented that are appropriately designed to stimulate creativity in both individuals and corporate environments. Educational procedures such as lab modernization and a corporate partnership program directed at both students and faculty, which address many of the difficulties confronting future electrical engineers, are discussed.

Emerging Technologies

Electrical engineering has always been, and continues to be, a profession of rapid technological advancement in all fields. There is no reason to believe that the pace of change will slow anytime soon. For example, in just the last few years, and continuing now in the proposed systems: 1. Analog and RF are gone from most ICs, replaced by digital. 2. Smartphones arrived and became the dominant platform, replacing everything from PCs to game consoles. 3. Everything is now competing with everything else; computers compete with TVs and radios compete with calculators. 4. A new generation of students who mostly only use the products, and do not understand how they work. 5. Product designs requiring cuts in staff and cycles. 6. A new wave of outsourcing designs, and jobs fleeing the United States. 7. Going green and limited resources, particularly for electrical engineers. The future: It will no longer be possible for electrical engineers to know everything there is to know about a given discipline. They will have to rely on outsiders to some extent. It may become impossible for one person to design what is now done by a team of engineers. The number of people in a design cycle will be roughly constant, but these engineers will be from entirely different disciplines than just electrical. Engineers must know who to listen to or how to prioritize the advice received to achieve the final product.

Smart Grids and Renewable Energy Integration

A smart grid is an electricity supply network that uses digital communication technology to detect and react to local changes in usage. It has been hailed as the electricity network of the future and has a broad range of applications that can be divided into smart transmission networks, smart distribution networks, power utilization, production and storage, and electric vehicles. In a smart grid, monitors, automation, and control equipment enable two-way communication between the control and the field, and systems used to view and model power systems utilize that information to make better operational and planning decisions. The so-called “smart meters” allow the utility to view usage and outages and charge the consumer for power used, the voltage, their power factor, and other parameters. With the advent of digital electronic devices, telemetry, telecontrol, and advanced distribution automation became possible with two-way communication. Power monitoring systems were put in place to detect abnormalities, and transmission and generation systems were put online to respond to them automatically. In transmission systems, Automatic Generation Control was implemented in the mid-1960s. In the early 1990s, due to a number of factors, including advanced technology at relay companies, urgings by regulators, and requirements for advanced automation, competitive multinational utilities, and local utilities needed to progress toward more advanced control. (Dileep, 2020)

3.1. Emerging Technologies

New technological advancements are significantly transforming the electrical engineering field, presenting both opportunities and challenges for the industry. A focus on five emerging technologies is vital to address these challenges. Technologies in microgrids, energy management systems, demand response, renewable and energy-efficient buildings, and smart electric vehicles are essential. Microgrids and other distributed generation systems, especially with rooftop solar photovoltaics, are emerging as viable electricity systems in the present utility grid paradigm. They can operate in both grid-connected and islanded modes, providing resilience against unexpected outages and potential cost savings.

Electrical power systems, with many interconnected components, are susceptible to cascading failures that can ultimately disconnect the entire network and entail serious catastrophic consequences. Since the failure of a small number of components is often the reason behind such large-scale disturbances, monitoring their dynamic state and preventing cascading failures through advanced control algorithms are major research challenges. The fault detection, identification, and recovery research provide players of the smart grid with better tools for online network state monitoring and control. (Liu et al.2020)

Although certain systems have been used in the past in various applications, the integration of energy-efficient LED lighting systems into these systems, which has never been implemented before, shows great potential. Control and communication protocols were tested to establish the feasibility of this integration without requiring significant infrastructure or hardware changes for existing systems. The proposed architecture is flexible, easy to adapt to different types of lighting and control devices, and provides various options for visualization, comprehensive monitoring, and access.

Intelligent energy management schemes in a renewable energy-battery household can smartly integrate various demand and supply side resources, including outdoor and indoor appliances. As part of the planned activities, proposed management algorithms will be implemented and experimentally validated on a small-scale renewable energy-battery coupled laboratory setup. Control architectures for actuator and load predictive future states will be developed as well as benchmarking and validation of their performance. The design and implementation of Energy Management Systems will be used to validate their solution on the experimental setup, potentially with low optimization run-time but a robust optimization solution.

3.2. Smart Grids and Renewable Energy Integration

The integration of renewable energy sources into existing electrical grids presents a multitude of challenges that require innovative solutions. One promising technology is the development of smart grids, which utilize advanced sensors, communication networks, and data analytics to enable more efficient and reliable management of electricity distribution. The implementation of smart grids creates a need for experts skilled in both electrical engineering and data analysis.

When a growing number of renewable energy resources are integrated into the existing electrical grid, new challenges arise concerning electricity distribution management. Various renewable energy sources, such as wind power, water power, and electricity from solar cells, are usually combined through a simple electricity distribution network. However, the variations in strength for renewable energy resources and electricity consumption at different network nodes create a complex management challenge. For instance, wind power is strong on some days but very poor on others, while electricity consumption at factories increases strongly when businesses are starting up in the morning but drops when they are closing. (Sinsel et al., 2020)

One innovative solution to this problem is to first figure out how much energy will be produced by the different renewable energy sources at future time slots. This can be achieved by statistical analysis, as each energy resource has its own variation strengths. Time series can be described with different models based on the predicted time interval. For example, ARMA models can be used for short time intervals, while ARIMA models can be used for long time intervals. It will also be important to determine how much electricity will be consumed by factories and cities. For these time series, RegARIMA models could be appropriate. A calculation model will be generated, and based on statistical time series analysis, adjusted predictions of how much energy will be produced or consumed will be made.

Once the calculations of the produced and consumed energy have been made, it will be important to determine whether it is economically reasonable to use storage. Storage will be reasonable only when it is cheaper than buying electricity from the electricity stock exchange. For this purpose, the spot price for radially connected electricity networks has to be calculated. The spot price calculation procedure is very complex and requires many calculations for different price scenarios, which means that some approximation methods will have to be applied. Artificial intelligence techniques, such as neural networks, can be used to achieve cheaper calculations for the spot price determination.

4. Challenges and Opportunities

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies has brought opportunities to develop new products and business models for many sectors, including electrical engineering. However, with each opportunity comes challenges that need to be proactively addressed. These challenges range from risks that fall under national security or corporate strategy, which are typically addressed internally, to issues that evolve and can only be dealt with through collaboration. The latter concerns problems with societal impacts, which are typically dealt with through regulations. Groups such as governments, NGOs, and research communities can play a role in ensuring problems are optimally addressed through collaborations with industry.

Security is a primary concern in the development of fewer IoT devices. Historically, electrical engineers needed to comprehend both hardware and software aspects of a system accurately. The growing and evolving risks stemming from connected devices, platforms, and the cloud is a field where regulators are still working to understand the scope and effects. Countries differ widely in their approaches, and harmonization efforts have only been started. Most corporate guidelines are still focused on core problems with known solutions and limited effectiveness outside large organizations. (Brass & Sowell, 2021)

Privacy is an emerging and contested societal problem. Although largely manageable in wired systems, the combination of vast amounts of personal data and machine learning is leading to unforeseen consequences. Considerable research is still needed to understand the scope and consequences. Governments can help by identifying and establishing harmonized boundaries and frameworks based on social viability, legality, and ethics. An explicit framework for ethical machine learning is needed, delineating what is scientifically possible from what is considered ethical and acceptable.

Society is facing an unprecedented need for energy-efficient and resource-efficient technologies, both to curb climate change and to cope with the rising need for raw materials. The electrical sector is expected to play a major role in this endeavor. The wholesale electrification of society, where energy transport is becoming fully electrified, is anticipated to play a role similar to the democratization of energy transport that took place with the introduction of the local electricity grid and its democratized participatory structures. Here, electrical engineers have the opportunity to research and develop wholesale electricity grid solutions globally.

4.1. Cybersecurity Threats

The rapid advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things has led to an expansion of the cyber domain and an escalation of attacks on critical infrastructure, local businesses, and public and private organizations. Recent events in the geopolitical arena have only increased the likelihood of cyber damage. These developments have provoked a public response, including investing in offensive capabilities, building active defense capabilities, and investing in detection and prevention technologies. Cyberspace defenders are working with regional and national militaries, and there is an ability to undertake attacks to inflict damage and destruction. On the industry side, there has been investment in upcoming technologies that could be used to inflict such damage, including drone swarms, autonomous vehicles, and artificial intelligence in offense. (Djenna et al., 2021)

While a plethora of investment, ideas, technologies, strategies, solutions, nations, and entities should provide protection, it is always possible to forget something and rely too much on what exists. The paranoia regarding offensive capabilities should hopefully be accompanied by an equal or greater effort to protect defense capabilities. Overall, these gaps will be covered by offensive systems with increased investments across the West to counter the perceived threat.

As technologies develop and expand into critical infrastructure, utilities, and other sensitive entities, concepts such as attack trees, the introduction of weaponized technologies, and automated systems that could build damage scenarios, operation plans, and even the approach, entry, and escape scenarios need to be considered. Still, someone must worry about the defense. Nations have invested heavily in defining potential scenarios and attempting to keep the adventure at a simulation level and in a virtual domain.

4.2. Sustainability and Environmental Concerns

The growing concern about climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions is facing challenges in many industries, including electrical engineering. It is crucial to find new, renewable, and sustainable resources, products, and systems of energy generation and use. Special care should be taken in innovative designs of electrical devices like motors, transformers, circuit breakers, power supplies, etc., to avoid huge losses of energy in the form of heat. Sustainable solutions must be found in the development, production, use, and recycling of electrical materials. Efforts are ongoing to remove the hazardous heavy metal lead from lead-based electrical materials. New structural, functional, and smart electrical materials and devices based on biocompatible and biodegradable bio-organic substances are being searched for. Innovative and smart materials for electrical engineering applications are being investigated, including polyaniline-silica and polyaniline-montmorillonite composites, silk sericin biopolymer/cellulose benzylated composites, and silicone resin/cellulose composites. The emergence of new power generation technologies, like thermophotovoltaic, triboelectric nanogenerators, and electrowettability-based microfluidic generators, and new construction materials/devices for energy tree harvesting challenges traditional ideas and knowledge on the subject. Transportation technologies are being investigated to avoid road congestion by considering new systems of passenger air transportation based on eVTOL vehicles. Because most of these challenges need serious issues to be addressed in electrical engineering education, government-funded educational programs and apprenticeships should be organized and implemented for engineering and non-engineering graduates. (Musa)

5. Government Apprenticeships in Electrical Engineering

5.1. Overview of Apprenticeship Programs Amidst a backdrop of evolving job opportunities arising from innovations, a volatile economic and academic climate, and rising unemployment rates, students face critical decisions in deciding on their educational path after secondary school. Attending university, technical college, and so forth. Services rise has inspired focus on developing and fostering partnerships between higher education and local businesses. The businesses’ perspective on education has fluctuated, moving from focusing solely on what colleges and universities should deliver to focusing on building awareness of what businesses can offer schools and students. Moreover, the question arises whether these partnerships directly benefit student preparation for the workforce. Nevertheless, two school-business partnership programs address the educational and professional needs of the institutions as well as the needs of students entering the job market. Both programs foster business-school partnerships where higher education providers occupy the roles, while local businesses fill the role of value-added, co-op service partners. (Jones et al.2021)

Government apprenticeships in electrical engineering are available in many countries, with each administration operating through a different agency. In state-funded federally approved apprenticeship programs, allowable expenses are established by the relevant authorities. Basic items of subsidized expense are: salary to apprentice, salary to trainer, and establishment of training facilities. An establishment must pay the apprentice an average of no less than $2.00 per hour for the first eleven months of training. The employer is required to keep records of the apprenticeship training program, display posters pertaining to the apprenticeship program, and maintain a complaint procedure. A complete outline of responsibilities of both employer and apprentice is included in the table of contents. A clock-hour training schedule for the electrical worker apprenticeship program is included as required by the apprenticeship agreement. The training schedule provides for a total of 2000 hours of planned training and sets forth acceptable programs for on-the-job training. The detailed outline for on-the-job training is included in the text.

5.2. Benefits and Impact Occupational safety and health guidelines for the training program are also complete and include an outline of safety training topics. A detailed outline of the written-test evaluation program to be employed in the apprenticeship training program is included. The written tests are intended to be formative and summative in purpose and range from ten to twenty questions, using all types of evaluation formats. Measures to evaluate the training program based on written tests and record-keeping of trainer observations are described. The establishment’s policies concerning discrimination against women, minorities, and handicapped applicants are stated as required in the apprenticeship standards. A formal grievance procedure is outlined to ensure that all complaints are properly evaluated and resolved. Commitment of resources is described, as non-federal assets will exceed the federally funded portion of the apprenticeship program by five times. Finally, past experience with other programs funded by relevant authorities is cited as evidence of the establishment’s ability to successfully administer government-funded programs.

5.1. Overview of Apprenticeship Programs

Apprenticeship programs are training systems where individuals, referred to as apprentices, work under the guidance of experienced professionals or mentors. Initiated during the Middle Ages for various skilled trades, the concept of apprenticeship has persisted, adapting to meet the needs of modern societies. In recent times, it has gained renewed attention as many countries struggle to ensure that young generations acquire marketable skills. In many developed countries, electrical engineers often begin their professional careers as apprentices. This transition involves the completion of an academic education, followed by entering the apprenticeship program of an electrical utility company. Many of these companies have established in-house training systems designed for this purpose, ensuring that the new employees meet the organization's needs and can efficiently work in operational jobs involving electrical equipment. Developing countries are now beginning to introduce similar systems. In Europe, extensive job-specific training systems have been in place for almost a century. These systems are part of the education system and provide a strong basis for better preparing the workforce to meet the needs of the labor market. The most essential aim of an apprenticeship program is to help the apprentice progress from a novice or beginner to a qualified person in terms of knowledge, skills, and competencies related to the working job. However, defining the starting point and the expected role in this process is not trivial. Assessing the entry level in terms of knowledge, skills, and competencies is usually difficult, while the learning contents and expected level after an apprenticeship are often not explicitly stated. Apprenticeship programs can vary significantly across organizations and countries. There are fewer similarities than expected, and these differences often relate not only to the training approaches adopted but also to the industrial and organizational cultures and the business context of the establishments where the apprenticeship takes place.

5.2. Benefits and Impact

Understanding the social, economic, and environmental benefits of apprenticeships—in particular, government-sponsored apprenticeships—has become a focus for researchers and policymakers as countries around the world work to address skills shortages and meet future labor market developments. Several benefits arise from government apprenticeships for companies, apprentices, education and training suppliers, and society as a whole.

The creation of a systematic monitoring project would provide information on the impact of government-sponsored apprenticeship programs. Specifically, research needs to address questions such as whether these apprenticeships offer sufficient training, whether this training reflects the needs of companies, and how government policies may influence the extent to which governments carry out company training.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have generally undersupplied apprentices, and the underperformance is most extreme in the case of lower-end apprenticeships. In other sectors and groups, initial vocational training was found to predominantly take place outside the workplace, causing concern regarding the relevance and quality of this type of training. A range of initiatives aimed at enhancing apprenticeship opportunities, company involvement in training, and motivation to train, especially in low- and medium-skilled jobs, is being implemented.

The main understanding of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of apprenticeships should include information on who supplies these benefits and how. Current assessment criteria should be extended to include the wider social, economic, and environmental benefits of apprenticeships. A cost-benefit analysis approach should be considered. Assessment of government initiatives, in the form of a review of ten recently implemented policies aimed at promoting apprenticeships and company training, should be included.

While there is a general understanding that apprenticeships support a number of social, economic, and environmental benefits, there is a lack of rigorous empirical evidence to support this understanding. Consequently, there is a need for research that evidences the economic value added of apprenticeships in terms of employment, productivity, and economic growth. There is also a need for research that evidences the value added of social and environmental benefits, for example, with regard to social inclusion, labor mobility, attitudes, workplace behavior, and work satisfaction.

6. Conclusion

The field of electrical engineering is poised for innovations and challenges in the coming years, as emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and renewable energy generation push the boundaries of knowledge and creativity. Given the rapid advancement of technology, it is paramount that new generations of engineers be not only aware of these developments but also actively involved in addressing the changes they foster. It is the responsibility of educators, businesses, and the government to adequately equip young people with the skills necessary to succeed in the coming years, or they will surely fall behind.

It has been contended that electrical engineers must develop a diverse set of skills to address the future challenges of the field's growth, including business and management skills, in addition to a sound theoretical understanding of the principles of electrical engineering. To facilitate the development of these skills, the government should provide apprenticeships for undergraduate electrical engineers starting in their final year of study. In the long run, this would mitigate the issue of finding suitably qualified workers for future innovations, as apprenticeships would not only provide graduates with work experience but also influence the degree's content during study. While this may be perceived as impinging on universities' autonomy, it ought to be pointed out that this is already the case for medical degrees, with close ties between universities, hospitals, and health service providers. Therefore, by implementing structured apprenticeships for electrical engineering graduates, the future challenges and innovations of the field could be met in a timely and appropriate manner. (Tao et al.2023)

This essay has explored the expected innovations and challenges in electrical engineering, the skills required to address these, and the proposed role of government apprenticeships in the development of suitably skilled graduates. It has been argued that the government must take action to enable a sound electrical engineering workforce in future decades. Further research should focus on identifying the specific content of apprenticeships in order for them to adequately address this issue, their appropriate structure and duration, and the level of involvement required by universities and businesses to ensure they meet these aims. Additionally, research should be conducted into addressing perceived concerns, focusing on issues of organizations, universities, and businesses, to ensure that apprenticeships provide appropriately skilled graduates without undue stress on small businesses or impinging on universities' autonomy.

6.1. Summary of Key Findings

The field of electrical engineering is undergoing significant transformations, driven by rapid advancements in innovative technologies and scientific methods. This evolution presents various opportunities and challenges for electrical engineering professionals, particularly for those beginning their careers. The need to stay current with groundbreaking developments in the field, particularly in information technology and computer engineering, is crucial for meeting the growing interest in specializations such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Consequently, there is a strong desire within the field of electrical engineering to establish government-sponsored apprenticeships that equip graduates with essential skills and experience to tackle performance demands more effectively. Through a detailed exploration of the future of electrical engineering and the role of government apprenticeships, several key findings emerge. First and foremost, electrical engineering is characterized by a distinct development path and varies significantly from other engineering fields, making it important to fully understand the complexities involved. Second, electrical engineering, being the foundation of the modern technological world, goes beyond the transformation of electrical energy but encompasses the responsible design of systems that create benefits for society. Third, while rapid innovations in technologies and designs present numerous opportunities for those in the field, they simultaneously generate unprecedented comprehension challenges regarding performance requirements and factors affecting the steady and fluent performance of electrical engineering designs, systems, and methods. Fourth, electrical engineering is an ongoing process of expansion that has been progressing for centuries and will unlikely reach an endpoint. Fifth, specialists in the field of electrical engineering are increasingly required to understand broader knowledge and foreign fields that augment primary engineering competencies. Finally, in response to the complexities and challenges experienced in the wider world of electrical engineering, government-sponsored apprenticeships with public and governmental organizations are proposed. Through properly organized job tasks, working processes, and a flexible time schedule, newly graduated electrical engineers would be provided with essential competencies and skills responsible for comprehending complex electrical systems and augmenting steady performance levels throughout their career path.

6.2. Future Directions for Research and Practice

The most important future directions follow four key areas related to electrical engineering and electrical engineering apprenticeship programs. The first future direction is that institutional and sustainability studies related to electrical engineering and electrical engineering apprenticeship programs in developed and developing countries can be taken up. There is a need for consistency in understanding and investigating the critical role of electrical engineering apprenticeship programs in fostering overall student development, with particular emphasis on innovation. The differences between apprenticeship programs in developed and developing countries can be taken up for enhancing knowledge regarding diverse curriculum frameworks planning. This would shed light on domain-specific variations in engineering apprenticeship programs, fostering comparative studies across other domains as well. This study strongly advocates for the need to take up such studies in the future.

The second future direction is conducting ethnographic and phenomenological studies to unveil implicit theories, unseen rituals, and culturally situated understanding of electrical engineering apprenticeships in understanding innovations and challenges. The implications of complex approaches on knowledge would augment current understanding of electrical engineering and electrical engineering apprenticeship programs, illuminating the way to potential solutions to cope with real-life innovations and challenges.

The third future direction is conducting systematic and comprehensive meta-reviews to unveil the snapshot of the status of electrical engineering apprenticeship pedagogy innovation, innovations, and challenges, and to inform the agenda of future mainstream research and practice. As per the broad assessment conducted, nothing has been published in peer-reviewed journals, and only two reports are published in non-refereed journals addressing innovations and challenges unifying the sub-domains of electrical engineering.

The fourth future direction is the need for research studies addressing the issue of aligning electrical engineering apprenticeship curriculums to meet the unmet challenges of graduate destinations. This issue is globally prevalent but contextually different in premising challenges due to differences in educational paradigms and graduating intellectual capital across countries. Engineering education meeting global challenges in contextually compatible approaches is essential to remodel engineering apprenticeship curriculums accordingly. It challenges complex methodological approaches of understanding compatible mismatches, engendering conflicts of beliefs and certainties in reconstructing practices.

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