In Sub-Sahara Africa, the sector of informal micro-enterprises (IMEs) is
already employing a large share of the labour force in both urban and
rural areas. This study reviews the ways in which the owners and workers
of IMEs have acquired their vocational and management skills. It reviews
the contributions of all the different training providers, including
public sector training institutes, private sector training providers,
and training centres run by NGOs and other non-profit organizations. The
study finds that informal apprenticeship training is by far the most
common source of various skills - in some countries it is likely to be
responsible for 80-90% of all ongoing training efforts. Informal
apprenticeship training presents a number of important advantages. At
the same time it has a number of limitations. The study concludes that
there is a major challenge to improve the transfer of relevant skills to
IME operators, both through pre-employment training and skills
upgrading. In view of the scope of the challenge to provide hundreds of
thousands IME owners and workers, as well as large numbers of out of
school youths with relevant practical and management skills, it suggests
to build upon the strengths of the existing practices of informal
apprenticeship training and to remedy its weaknesses by involving
professional training providers in upgrading its training organization
and delivery, quality and efficiency, and final training outcomes. It
reviews the results of a number of innovative interventions in different
African countries that are working in this direction. Finally, the study
suggests that there is an interesting potential in 'business-embedded
training' provided by private companies as part of their regular
business operations.
