Indigenous Man-Power Training and Apprenticeship as A Strategy for Youth Empowerment in Oyo State, South West, Nigeria

Apprenticeship, an acceptable man-power training method meant to impact quality training needs to address the problems of economic development seems to have been neglected in Nigeria. This study was therefore designed to examine the relevance of indigenous man-power training (MPT) and apprenticeship to development, factors responsible for decline in indigenous MPT and career opportunities for youth engaging in apprenticeship in Nigeria. This study was guided by human capital theory and conducted through qualitative techniques. Forty-four (44) In-depth interviews were used to elicit narratives from individuals, masters and apprentices of different trades in Oyo state. Two sessions of focus group discussion was also used to elicit information from citizens, community leaders and stakeholders. Purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of four local governments and individuals while snowball sampling technique was used for the selection of masters and apprentices. The data was content analyzed. The narratives indicated that indigenous MPT and apprenticeship provides source of income, employment opportunities, it develops the economy the economy and reduces dependency ratio. The factors responsible for decline in indigenous MPT among the youth are lack of sponsorship, inadequate fund, corruption and lack of government policies. Poor treatment of apprentice, low incentives and unattractiveness of apprenticeship on the part of the masters and laziness and inability to combine formal education with apprenticeship training on the part of apprentice are all responsible for the decline. It was discovered that indigenous MPT will lead to advancement in career quickly, youths who acquire numerous skills can turn it to wealth creation and they can become employers of labour too. Emerging from pragmatic and policy implementation of the result, it is evident that apprenticeship is a sustainable technique for youth employment which if appropriately executed can be a guide to youth empowerment programme of the government in Nigeria.