Informal apprenticeship training scheme, according to experts, is an important, cost-effective and flexible means of skills transfer in the informal economy. But the system, which was once a major contributor to youth employment, is fast disappearing from the entrepreneurial landscape, resulting in acute shortage of skilled artisans. No thanks to increasing quest for formal education, the get-rich-quick mentality and harsh business environment, among others. Assistant Editor OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE examines the implications of this development and the clamour for its return in order to create jobs, boost productivity and stem youth restiveness.
Automacs Technologies Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Obiora Ogonsiegbe, is worried. His worry stemmed from the difficulty in finding skilled artisans, such as plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, and carpenters, to handle various jobs in the construction industry.
According to Ogonsiegbe, it is extremely difficult to get quality, skilled artisans in the country. ‘’You have to go to the neigbouring African countries, such as Togo, Ghana or Cotonou, where informal apprenticeship training system is being taken seriously,’’ he said. He regretted that these countries were out-sourcing quality artisans to Nigeria.
He, and indeed, other experts in various sectors, believe that the informal apprenticeship scheme is, perhaps, the most important method of skills transfer in informal economy. This, according to them, is because it offers a more cost-effective and flexible means of skills transfer, which absorbs a larger number of youths than their formal and publicly financed counterparts.
They noted that apprenticeship training occurs mostly in the private sector, where the owner of an informal enterprise takes on apprentice (s), usually for a fee, and provides training in vocational skills over three or more years. It is an important source of training, which helps to provide needed skills that are required.
The scheme is popular in most urban centers, accounting for about 85 per cent of skills training and transfers in most parts of the country. It is also a major source of livelihood for those in various enterprises, who engage in apprenticeship schemes, such as wielding, auto-mechanics, and auto-electricians.
Others are tailoring, generator repairing, mobile phone repairing, carpentry, furniture making, catering, manicure and pedicure, and plumbing. These trades of the informal apprenticeship scheme were recognised as means of absorbing and training unemployed youths through manpower development and economic empowerment.
But the story has since changed. The apprenticeship system is fast disappearing. Gone are the days when a master auto-mechanic would have about five apprentices under his tutelage. Today, many youths are unwilling to sign up to learn a trade. Many, who signed up, quit and opted for either motorcycle riding or taxi driving.
Some of them, who remained to learn the trade, would not stay long enough to acquire the necessary skills. Earlier, people were proud to undergo tutelage as mechanics, plumbers, tailors, and bricklayers, among others. Not anymore. The youth are more interested in making quick money, which is why the majority of them have taken to motorcycle riding, popularly called Okada as their source of livelihood.
A bricklayer, Mr. Ibidemi Akinola, lamented the serious decline in apprenticeship training, noting that the situation has dire consequences for the future. He said, for instance, that gone were the days when he used to have up to seven boys as apprentices, noting that they no longer find it interesting to learn the trade.
The story changer
Ogonsiegbe said one of the factors responsible for Nigeria’s inability to ride on the back of a vibrant informal apprenticeship training scheme to tackle the unemployment surge and close the wide sills gap, is the widely held belief that apprenticeship is meant for people, who cannot do well in the formal education system, or those whose parents cannot afford to sponsor their education.
He said this has made it difficult to attract young graduates and youths of school age into the system, adding that the erroneous assumption by not a few people is that those who undergo apprenticeship are ‘never do well’ people and are not respected like their counterparts in the formal school system.
Automacs Technologies CEO also stated that the attitude of masters in most cases constitutes hindrance to the practice of apprenticeship. His words: “This negative attitude of the masters is caused probably by the fact that they are not trained in the act of teaching. Most masters are difficult and have little skills to sustain the interest of the apprentices on the job. This makes the rate of drop-out to be high.”
Also, the economic condition of most parents of the apprentice and the trainees in most cases, make it difficult for them to sponsor the training for the agreed period. Master craftsmen are not spared of the problem of poverty.
The result is that in most cases, they find it difficult to equip their workshops with necessary equipment, which can improve efficiency and make them meet up with contemporary technological needs.
That is not all. Wrong career choice by the apprentices is also said to be a constraint to the development of apprenticeship system. Due to lack of exposure, limited knowledge of psychology and career counselling, apprentices often make wrong career choices.
In most cases, careers are forced on would-be apprentice by their parents or guardians without due consideration for apprentices’ interest, ability and capability. This has often resulted into non-completion of the apprenticeship period due to his or her inability to cope with the physical and intellectual requirements of the training.
Govt’s failure
Although, the government has articulated a number of initiatives, interventions and empowerment programmes aimed at training and retraining the youths in various vocations, such interventions appear not to have made the desired impacts.
As far as Ogonsiegbe is concerned, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), for instance, has not lived up to its billing. He said if the Fund had made much impact, there would have been a substantial reduction in crimes associated with youths and restiveness.
He recalled other efforts to include the creation of National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and its skills acquisition programmes, the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) to address poverty in the country; the SURE-P and YouWIN, among others.
He, however, argued that the various intervention mechanisms aimed at ensuring economic growth, which is rich in job creation opportunities and apprenticeship, have not yielded the desired positive results.
The government’s education programme such as the Universal Basic Education (UBE), which made going to school mandatory for school-age children, is also said to have drastically trimmed down the number of children going for technical apprenticeship.
More importantly, is perhaps, the indolence and get-rich-quick mentality of the people is believed to have resulted in increased rate of school drop-out and demand for buying and selling for quick profit with limited stress, especially when there was no respect for artisans, but high respect for wealth, no matter how ill-gotten it may be.
Nigeria’s poor business environment has not helped matters either. The harsh business environment has forced many technical workshops to close down. Many of them lacked steady electric supply and have been forced by various tiers of government to pay multiple taxations.
Also, owners of such technical workshops have little or no incentives from the government and are shunned by banks whenever they ask for loans.
The lack of political will by successive governments, has also been a hindrance to entrepreneurship development and reduction of unemployment in Nigeria. The neglect of vocational and technical education has robbed the nation of the potential contributions of its graduates to national growth and economic development.
This is why there has been dearth of competent artisans such as bricklayers, carpenters, printers, auto mechanics, laboratory and pharmacy technicians, vocational nurses etc.
The way things currently stand, youths are not motivated to choose vocational and technical education. This may be why it is common to find many legislators donating motorcycles, grinding machine, shoe shinning tools to youths in their constituencies under the name of “youth empowerment”.
This has, again, heightened fears by operators in various sectors that in a few years’ time, Nigeria will begin to experience an acute shortage of artisans.
Call for return of apprenticeship
Calling for a policy on apprenticeship, Ogonsiegbe said the problem of outdated and unimplemented policies was a major problem confronting apprenticeship system practice in Nigeria.
He said presently there seems not to be any guiding principle from the government as regulatory agency for apprenticeship system. This, he said, has made apprenticeship less attractive to youths and graduates.
According to experts, apprenticeship is a form of education and training. Informal apprenticeship also contributes significantly to youth employment and empowerment, thereby reducing youth restiveness. It also enhances national productivity in virtually all the sectors of the economy.
An entrepreneur and fashion designer, Mrs. Ibikun Hassan, said despite the nonchalant attitude of some youths, who want to make it fast and big, the informal economy, where many of them operate, remains Nigeria‘s powerhouse and indeed, other developing economies.
Hassan told The Nation that more than seven apprentices have stayed with her for over four years “I earned my degree over 20 years ago, and when l felt that l was done with paid jobs, l had to go for apprenticeship to learn fashion designing for 18 months.
“Unfortunately, people think that they can learn the same thing within three months. You can’t beat experience, which comes with apprenticeship in anything you are doing,” she said.
According to her, apprenticeship improves skills and trade secret for those who are patient and humble enough to go through the rudiments. It also provides opportunity for one to learn how to handle his or her business when he or she graduates
Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) Director-General, Mr. Muda Yusuf, also lent his voice to the need to encourage apprenticeship. According to him, there is a lot of value addition in apprenticeship, as the apprentice has so much to gain in a hands-on operation and process than being a green horn.
He advised those in apprenticeship not to be so bordered about making money in apprenticeship, but concentrate on the knowledge passed down to them from people who have acquired the skills over time and have more experience and skill to pass down to them.
The LCCI chief advised youths to have passion for whatever vocation or trade they desire to do. He argued that it is wrong for them to jump into any trade because they see others doing well in it rather than the love of the trade. And to minimise the risk of failure of any enterprise, he said one needs to know how gifted he is.
“You don’t expect that once you have an idea, banks or lenders will give you money to deliver on them. Having a learning curve is a more sustainable strategy,”he said.
Also on the need for apprenticeship among the youths, Landwey Investment Group Managing Director, Mr. Olawale Ayilara, wondered why those, who studied abroad come back to the country and pick the few jobs available.
To him, it is simply because they are better skilled, with sophisticated apprenticeship training needed for the jobs they applied for.
A trader in textiles and cotton materials, Mr. Kalu Agbai, also underscored the importance of apprenticeship when he acknowledged that it is customary in the Southeastern part of the country to undergo apprenticeship before engaging in almost any area of business.
He revealed that he did apprenticeship for 10 years with his ‘master’ to learn not only the rudiments and secret of the business, but to also prepare himself for the challenges of setting up his own business and making a success of it.
The Nation learnt that the age range from apprentices to masters in the informal training system is from 11 to 60 years of age. It, however, differs from one enterprise to another.
It was also learnt that in some parts of the country, children between the ages of 10 to 14 work as apprentices. About 49 per cent of school age children are said to be in the informal apprenticeship system in Nigeria.
Majority of these children, if not in the informal apprenticeship, end up on the streets hawking just to make ends meet. It is in recognition of this fact that the government allowed for more young people to be apprentices in certain enterprises rather than wander around the streets.
According to experts, apprenticeship has over the years proven to be a tool for employment generation and poverty reduction at low investment cost as well as improving the wellbeing of individuals engaged in it. Unfortunately, the scheme has not been adequately harnessed in tackling the unemployment surge among the youths in Nigeria.
The consensus is that successive governments have not given reasonable attention to alternative empowerment schemes, especially apprenticeship to galvanise the youths for national development.
But for the neglect of the scheme, such skill acquisitions training within the confines of apprenticeship would have afforded the youths means to be relevant along the line of a particular profession such as fashion designing, furniture making, carpentry, shoe making, plumbing, electrical repairs, auto mechanic, retail trading and other related endeavors.
This must have prompted the call by some Nigerians on the need for the government to introduce incentives for youths, who want to engage in apprenticeship as career path in alleviating poverty. They also called on the government and policy makers to encourage apprenticeship and technical training to fill the yearning skills gap in the productive sector.