What is apprenticeship? If you are looking for a full-time job as an electrician specialized and skilled to perform certain tasks related to custom building or repairing electrical devices and maintaining the wiring system in office areas and buildings, you are most likely to start your career as a trainer, who is more commonly referred to as an apprentice. The term apprenticeship is not reserved exclusively for workers in the electrical industry; there can be other areas of specialization for workers as well. Apprenticeship has its more informal form as internship. It is during the internship period when a person learns the tools of the trade and gradually acquires the various skills associated with their area or field of interest. It may be medicine, technology or even creative or performing arts, and creative writing as well. During the internship phase, the amount of money that is paid as stipend can be relatively low compared to the others who have much more expertise in these fields and have already reached a higher level in this field of work. The duration of apprenticeship can vary for electricians, especially depending on the skills that they want to master. The set of skills for a building or construction engineer can be quite different from those of a service engineer who works on repairing or installation of one or two devices in a building or a relatively smaller area. The construction engineer is often well-versed with the complete process of construction of a new building and has to work hand in hand with the builders or architects.

Apprenticeship is often the term used for practical, on-the-job training and has some accompanying study with it. This accompanying study might involve classroom teaching or a few vocational classes that focus on building of the technical set of skills. Post the period of apprenticeship, the electricians can gain a license in their profession and this credential clearly gives them an edge over the amateurs or novices. More often than not, during the time of apprenticeship, there is a guide or a teacher who is there to provide the requisite amount of knowledge and the ideas related to technicalities to the students. Once they complete it and receive professional classification, they are commonly referred to as “journeymen”. Post that they can further work with companies on a contractual level or get permanently employed in either government or private organizations as electricians or electrical contractors.