Women Apprenticeship: A Panacea to Unemployment among Women in Nigeria

This paper examined the concepts of apprenticeship and work amongst women in Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey. The population for the study was all craft-women in Nigeria. A sample of 30 master craft-women was purposively selected in randomly selected three States in Nigeria. The instrument was a semi-structured interview guide termed Women Apprenticeship Interview Guide (WAIG), divided into two sub themes: the need for women apprenticeship and gender issues affecting women apprenticeship and job opportunities. Oral interview was tape-recorded, responses transcribed and coded. The discussions of the results were done using phenomenological narration. The results showed that women worked to enhance their family up-keep; social, more than gender issues affected women apprenticeship; and apprenticeship was a way-out of unemployment among women. The paper, posited that reform in apprenticeship strategies stimulate interests of women in vocational training and equip them with employable skills that would give them better employment opportunities.