Linking informal apprenticeship and formal education in South-Eastern Nigeria through market/mechanic village schools

The Nigerian government as well as international agencies have implemented several informal apprenticeship intervention programmes aimed at improving productivity, trade union leadership and literacy/numeracy of practitioners. One of such interventions is the Education Trust Fund (ETF) intervention in boy-child education within south-eastern Nigeria established by UNICEF. This paper highlights the process, nature, and scope of the ETF intervention in relation to informal apprenticeships. As research meth9odology, the research & development (R&D) design was used for the study. Among other outcomes, the UNICEF market/mechanic village school curriculum was modified using open-learning principles by informal apprenticeship. School is taken to the apprentices rather than the apprentices to school by incorporating formal education into informal apprenticeship thus ensuring certification and enhanced social status for informal apprenticeship graduates.