Abstract
The purpose of this study is to transform the public’s biased opinion which asserts that vocational school graduates don’t have the suitable job skills after they graduate within the traditional electrical engineering (EE) industry. The public believes that vocational schools have limited exposure to industries and thus a gap emerges. This study seeks to understand the wage and apprenticeship system of the traditional EE industry, investigate why there’s an age gap in the industry, analyze the benefits of the blue-collar workforce, help young people improve their self value as well as compare two traditional EE companies and how their human resource management differ from each other. This research relies on case study and literature review to understand the traditional EE workforce. In addition, this study also compares Nan-I Engineering Ltd and Jianhua Hydropower Ltd. in the view of human resource management. Nan-I Engineering Ltd mainly builds factories for its business activities with a one-stop workflow. In the selection of talent, it focuses on personal capability and follows the practices of human resource management. On the contrary, Jianhua Hydropower Ltd. runs testing centers for technical qualification exams, teaches its daily paid workers about work tasks, and improves the teaching equipment and tools for vocational schools. This study analyzes how human resource management can benefit the traditional blue-collar EE workforce in terms of perception, pick, placement, professional, and preservation – the so called 5P in human resource management. After careful examination, this study concluded that for different companies that operate differently, human resource management practices might vary. Yet, of all the available job opportunities out there blue-collar jobs are the best choices since they offer the best wage, allow workers to improve their skills, and provide complete training and promotion measures. Youngsters in the future should be encouraged to participate in the apprenticeship of traditional industries so as to know their importance in the society.