Lyle,
I served my time at Electricity Ashburton,
(the local Power board).
It took 10,000 Hours, of on-the job experience, 1 full year at Polytech,
night courses every Tuesday, for 2 years,
Block courses lasting a fortnight, in the middle of the year(5 of them), and a whole host of exams at the end of my apprenticeship, these being Regulations, Theory and 2 Practical Exams, to make sure you can do all of the required tasks of a Registered Electrician, and do them safely.
It was the Power Board that stipulated the 5-
year apprenticeship, normally it is only 4-years(8000 Hours), over here, but they liked to thoroughly train their staff.