Vocational education is a system of education that prepares students for a career in a hands-on or practical way. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) describes it as a system of education intended for students or apprentices to obtain the skills unique to a specific vocational job or trade. It is any system of training that provides apprentices/students with practical skills, which eventually prepares them for a life outside the formal education system (college) and a job beyond the walls of their training centres, either as entrepreneurs or business owners. Its primary objective is to enable the participants to achieve economic freedom through self or paid employment.
The history of vocational education cannot be traced to any point in history. It has been ever-present, as depicted in the activities of artisans, who existed and flourished alongside human civilisations. It exists in the informal structure through which mothers taught their daughters household skills, and professional artisans trained young men in particular trades. Some studies opine that it began with the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 626 BC, where fathers handed down the skills of their trade to their sons. Artisans who engaged in vocational practices remain among the least documented in the numerous studies of the ancient world. They have been termed banausic (mechanical) arts because they involved men working in “not-so-comfortable” places with no free time to devote to their family, friends, or the state.
Vocational education, in whichever place or time it existed, was an instrument of socio-economic change and was a part of African societies in the precolonial era. In Nigeria, most studies on vocational education tend to merge the more formal concepts of technical and vocational education (TVE) or vocational education and training (VET). What, then, is vocational education in Nigeria?
Vocational Education in Nigeria
Vocational education in Nigeria entails all apprenticeship training undertaken in informal or non-academic centres geared towards instilling in the apprentices, competencies needed to continue in a particular line of trade or business. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the informal sector employs at least 80% of young people in sub-Saharan Africa and accounted for 86.5% of total employment in 2023. This sector provides an alternative for people from marginalised groups or lower social classes to escape poverty. According to the World Bank, the informal sector provides employment outside the formal sector. In addition, it promotes self-employment, although it suffers from a lack of pension insurance.
Nigeria’s informal sector comprises all manufacturing and agricultural activities in agriculture, building and construction, gas and water supply, manufacturing, retail, trade, storage, communication and community, social and personal services, transport, and wholesale industries. This sector is the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and has demonstrated significant resilience, adapting to economic and socio-political changes that continue to occur in the country. As an important contributor to Nigeria’s labour force population (65%), the sector functions outside the controlled formal sector structure.
Also, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector features production activities in the following fields – agriculture; apparel, textiles, and footwear; automobiles; beverages; chemical and pharmaceutical products; crafts; electrical and electronics; food processing; mining (metallic and non-metallic production); motor vehicles and assembly; plastics and rubber; tobacco; wood; and paper products, among others. Some of these industries require practical and hands-on technical training that results in the production of tangible outputs. The skills needed to flourish in these industries are better transferred, primarily in the informal sector and at the place of production, i.e., factories or workshops.
Why Is Vocational Education Significant in Nigeria?
Vocational education is as old as the various communities that make up Nigeria. Each precolonial society had a significant indigenous industry that characterised its socio-economic outlook. Vocational education was promoted in pre-colonial Nigeria through the apprenticeship system known as Ịmụ ahịa or ịgba bọi (Igbo), Tsarin koyo, Hanyar koyar da Dabarun Sana'oi or Sana'oi (Hausa), and the iṣẹ-kikọ or ikẹkọ (Yoruba) systems. The blacksmiths and smelters in shau shau (in Yankari), Maguzawa (Sokoto), Taruga, and Siri, as well as the prominent Nok culture in northern Nigeria, potters in Nok, Afikpo, and Ishiagu (Igbo land), and the fabric makers and weavers that manufacture the Aso Oke, Akwete, and Okene wears, were all key players in the development of Nigeria’s vocational education. Most of these industries were transformed during the colonial period, while many have been modified and altered to suit the demands of the post-colonial era.
Given this reality, the question is: why engender vocational education?
The survival of vocational education is at a questionable stage, leading to a dire need to revolutionise the system to ensure its sustenance. Vocational education, among other things, is a relevant sector offering an alternative pathway for individuals to excel in practical and technical-related business or career endeavours. The main objective of the recipients of this type of education is not to become employees but to open their start-ups from their settlement bonds, scale up, and expand their market. Hence, with each set of graduates comes a significant increase in the number of new jobs, which invariably results in employment and a reduction, however insignificant, of the unemployment rate in the host community.
Apart from providing employment opportunities, vocational education is a significant tool for achieving the other agenda of Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) in Nigeria. Thus, creating numerous employment opportunities and decent innovative work for all stimulates inclusive and sustainable economic growth. A study shows that, in the face of other factors, economic structure plays a vital determining role in the growth of the informal sector. A study on informal manufacturing by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) notes that many economic theories do not promote the formalisation of the informal sector through public interventions. The study, however, stresses that by accommodating manufacturing activities in the informal sector, the total macroeconomic performance—output and employment will improve significantly.
The National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) Gross Domestic Product Report for Nigeria captures the role of the informal sector in the nation's development. Although this report does not differentiate between informal and formal production activities, it gives insight into the sector's performance over a given period.
The Situation on Ground and the Way Forward
The chart above shows the unstable growth in the manufacturing sector from 2017 to 2020. It also reveals that its contribution to annual GDP continued to decrease from 2021. Therefore, it is evident that Nigeria's manufacturing sector has not fared well since the COVID-19 virus outbreak. Its 8.60% and 3.57% GDP contributions in 2020 and 2021, respectively, show the impact of COVID-19 on manufacturing activities.
This article has established the features of vocational education in Nigeria’s informal manufacturing sector. It also notes that the informal sector complements the formal sector in the drive towards economic development and sustenance. Hence, public policies that provide a decent or standard business environment ought to be prioritised in Nigeria. Nigeria’s informal manufacturing has recorded significant success in putting the country on the map of global economic visibility. From the textile clusters in Aba, Kano, Kaduna, and Iseyin to the automobile clusters in Nnewi and Enugu, the plastic clusters in Onitsha, and the leather clusters in Kano, Aba, Lagos, and Onitsha, vocational education has survived and thrived.
In addition, the relevant public offices need to take up local manufacturers' complaints regarding excessive taxes, limited access to financial services, inadequate infrastructure, and poor access to local and foreign markets because of high tariffs. Suppose actors in the field of vocational education receive adequate financial support from key public and institutional stakeholders; more people will be taken off the streets, and the income of many households will increase.
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