By Nduka Val
Apprenticeship is not a new system in the affairs of man. It is a universal system that has been in existence over decades, considering its positive contributions towards enriching the economic status of the participated apprentices and the society at large.
In this premise, therefore, apprenticeship as encapsulated in the en.m.wikipedia.ng, is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on – the job training and some accompanying study.
Apprenticeship can also enable practitioners to gain a licence to practice in regulated occupation. In some cases, most apprentices undergo their trainings while working for an employer who will help them learn their profession, in exchange for their continued labour for an agreed period of time. Such apprentices are required to achieve freedom in accordance with the satisfied obtained competences in the job.
In another definition, by www.meriam. webmaster.com, an apprenticeship is an arrangement in which someone learns an art , trade or job under another.
It is important to let you know here that in any apprenticeship establishment in any part of the society, it has three major entities to rely on. These are: the learner(apprentice), the teacher(master) and the affected families of both the master and the apprentice, whose duty will be to serve as witnesses to the drafting of the agreement paper that will determine the duration of the freedom of the said apprentice, in respect to being adequately equipped with the learnt skills.
This has primarily become the engagement system of apprenticeship in the South-East as it affects any job or skill.
Prior to this period in the South-East, it used to attract a light refreshment at the house of a trade or skill master during the engagement of one as an apprentice. The parents or guardians of the affected apprentices are expected to converge at the house of the master with a view to officially drafting the needed documents in respect to the apprentice’s engagement and duration, after which a light merriment would be organized to mark the beginning of his / services.
Apprenticeship can be majorly seen to exist in the areas of business and arts, such as motor parts business, cloth trading, wood trading, tailoring, mechanics, blacksmithing etcetera .
It is very obvious that the desire with which young people were engaging in an apprenticeship skill in our zone in the past has completely dwindled, considering the rate of their reluctance in neglecting the activity and engaging in an easy money making venture commonly known as yayoo.yahoo or obtaining by tricks(OBT).
It is no longer news today that a good number of Trade Masters or Art Masters are regularly in need of youths to serve as apprentices in their various fields, thereby affecting the economic status of the South-East.
The normal gradual economic progression and positive wealth creation associated with the Igbos through their notable hard- work in farming, trading and arts have presently been affected as a result of many young people engaging in an unhealthy and dirty activities, other than undergoing an apprenticeship programme that enhances Igbo spirit of economic self reliance and true liberation.
Obviously, there are many benefits that are expected to accrue from an apprenticeship engagement in the South-East .
Some of these are: its ability to equip a participant with the full knowledge and acquired certificate of competency; positions one to earn a better living; serves as a stepping stone for further life elevation and achievement. It equally makes an apprentice to become an employer and a creator of jobs whenever he/ she becomes a ‘master’.
The continuous neglect of apprenticeship endangerment in the South-East Zone has many implications in different spheres of our lives. For instance, the dwindling of young apprentices in learning Arts like carpentry, mason work, refrigeration, furniture making and bicycle repairing has created a room for regular external capital flight, owing to the unhindered patronage of outside workers as alternatives to the our own.
If this occurs therefore, the supposed economy of the South- East will be strictly affected in many dimensions.
Also, serious neglect of our present day youths to appreciate apprenticeship system makes the continuity of some arts or skills very impossible, going by the occasion of death of any of the masters of those skills. In retrospect, it is clear that one cannot find upto 2% of black smiths in the whole of the South-East, owing to the absence of the young to replace the old and dead practitioners.
The patronage of Yahoo.yahoo business by the majority of youths of Igbo extraction in Nigeria with disregard to the full acceptable system of apprenticeship has not only brought some level of disrespect or stigma to us, but has encouraged the youths to deviate from genuineness to the self – inflicted devaluation of Our societal value system. This must be holistically tackled for the reclaiming of the Igbo’s reputation and trust.
To achieve this in respect to the re- activation of apprenticeship system in Igbo land, some of the following are needed to be done: There should be a serious and holistic re – orientation of the the youths to embrace apprenticeship scheme in our zone.
Apprenticeship in the South – East Zone should be made compulsory in both secondary and tertiary institutions, irrespective of one’s course of study. He or she should be registered for one skill or the other within same school or a nearby acquisition centre which will run simultaneously with his course of his/ her study. This is a system that will always enhance individualistic economic independency.
There is need for government to subsidize the apprenticeship costs usually incurred
by parents, so as to serve as a form of encouragement to the participants and other would-be apprentices.
Also, same government at all levels should creat a template for the provision of stipends to all the apprenticeship participants in order to serve as a form of inducement for them.
In same vein, it will attract other young people to queue in and adopt the practice for a better economic survival.
If the above enumerated recommendations in this article are duly followed by the authorities, the South- East will be made to experience massive economic transformation arising from the contributions of the certified and freed apprentices.
