Monday, October 31, 2016

The Decline in Electrical Engineers

By: Sadab Bahar
            To recall, electrical engineering deals with the application of electronics and electricity. They are sometimes referred as invisible engineers because they deal with things people do not notice, such as wiring in cars and behind walls. Electrical engineering is a plentiful field of engineering. Job opportunities are always growing for electrical engineers and they are generally given higher wages than when compared to other engineers. Soon, thousands of power industry workers will become eligible for retirement. This will result in many skilled engineers leaving the work place and it will leave a shortage of engineers. According to the Economic Specialists International, about 25% of today’s electrical engineers are over the age of fifty-five (Carnovale). This is a big problem, but also a good opportunity for future engineers. There is already demand for electrical engineers, however, with the drop in electrical engineers coming the demand will be even higher.

            A problem that rises with the drop of electrical engineers includes electrical companies struggling with mentoring younger workers. Another problem is the decreasing number of apprenticeship programs. This will cause problems because new talent will need to be trained which is time consuming and expensive. Many students do not pursue careers in electrical engineers because of the difficulty. In order to attract more students to study electrical engineering, industries must make engineering exciting and shift from theory to real life application (Carnovale). One of the problems with studying engineering is the lack of experience students face. They spend too much time in class rooms and not in the field learning the real skills that are needed every day. If universities can accomplish, industries will not have to spend as much time training unskilled engineers. 


Carnovale, Dan. "The Coming Engineering Shortage." Consulting-Specifying Engineering. Consulting-Specifying Engineering, 31 Oct. 2016. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.

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