skills may not be in demand, but income-generating activities cannot be promoted effectively without addressing a “technical” side to transfer practical knowledge about, production techniques, raw materials, tools and equipment, and product design. This does not necessarily amount to a real skills training course, but it requires activities that can be called para-trainingsuch as
–Pre-credit technical orientation. Prospective borrowers should be advised of promising economic activities, relevant technologies, the kinds of tools and equipment to buy, and other practicalities.
–Demonstrations.Short demonstrations of applications can be given to introduce nontraditional production techniques and product designs.
–Skills transfer.Short training sessions can be offered on skills transfer and the technical aspects of income-generating activities.
–Business counseling.Frequent visits can be paid to borrowers who have started up a new business to help them deal with common administrative and technical problems.
Toward a Strategy to Improve Traditional
improve the quality of apprenticeship outcomes is to raise the basic educational levels of apprentices early in their training. Literacy training can be integrated with apprenticeship, but often new curric-ula need to be developed for this purpose.
• Upgrade the skills of master craftspersons.The most appropriate training intervention may be to upgrade the skills of master craftspersons, assuming better skills will make them more productive and have a trickle-down effect on apprenticeships. This skills upgrading should focus first on pedagogy. Apart from the naturally gifted, most mas-ters lack knowledge of how to train young adults. Since most master craftspersons view themselves foremost as technical specialists, they can be quite interested in upgrading their technical skills. Managerial competency is another matter. Master craftspersons may not appreci-ate the need to improve their managerial practices and may need to be induced. For both technical and managerial skills a strong argu-ment can be made that the training should focus on helping them find solutions to their own problems.
• Improve the limited purchasing power by consumers for better quality prod-ucts.This problem may be addressed by (i) focusing the training on increasing productivity and reducing costs (for example, wastage of materials, as in APME Cameroon), and (ii) training enterprises to move up-market where consumers can afford better quality.
• Enhance traditional apprenticeship training.Doing this needs more than improved delivery of training. It also requires the infusion of new skills and technical knowledge into the informal sector. One way to infuse such knowledge and skills would be to link apprenticeship with specialized training providers. However, this will not happen by itself. Facilitators are needed to create such linkages. The role of the facilitator is to convince master craftspersons of the advantages of training for them and their apprentices; to identify suitable train-ing providers; to organize or animate ISAs to become involved; and to help finance the first rounds of training. The role of facilitator will gradually disappear as the parties enter into direct relationships.
• Introduce supplementary training for apprentices.Besides better literacy and numeracy, apprentices need (i) theoretical training to enable them to grasp the basics of the trade, such as measuring, calculating, and reading of drawings and (ii) expanded technical training, for example, on equipment unavailable in their particular workshops.
The provision of such supplementary training through alternance (for example, Benin BAA) is promising.
• Evaluate and certify the skills obtained.One of the major shortcomings of traditional apprenticeship training is the lack of quality assurance, through either monitoring the process or applying objective end-of-training assessments. Efforts by informal sector associations (Came-roon GIPA) can fill this need.
• Arrange for posttraining support.The lack of marketing skills and other business acumen among recent apprenticeship graduates poses a serious risk to their success in self-employment and entrepreneur-ship. Lack of access to credit for business start-up and initial opera-tion makes it difficult to use the skills acquired. The need for follow-up services does not mean that training providers should include such services in their menu. On the contrary, in conformity with the preferred approach to business development services, spe-cialized intermediaries can be responsible for credit, management, and technological advice to informal sector enterprises.
Issues
Three issues need to be addressed to improve skills training for the informal sector: reorientation of the training institutes, scaling up successful pro-grams, and financial sustainability.
Reorientation of VTIs
It is unclear whether existing public sector training centers can make the sweeping changes needed to serve the demands of the informal sector. Most would have to make major changes in identifying market trends, translating them into training programs, and finding appropriate delivery modalities to reach new target groups. It may be preferable to use master craftspersons for the training. Moreover, reorientation of existing training centers requires major investments to upgrade facilities and equipment; to attract, develop, and retain new staff; and to develop new curricula and materials. Quality improvements require resources in excess of current public subsidies.
Increased training fees are not likely to prove feasible in view of the poor benefits of past training and constraints on family incomes.
Scaling Up
Most of the successful examples of training for the informal sector, and for literacy and livelihood skills, consists of small projects. Sponsors provided intensive inputs to develop programs responsive to local demand. These precedents, therefore, provide no recipe for quick expansion to mass provi-sion. Rather, working in partnerships with communities and NGOs and ensuring adaptation to local demand requires slower growth and long-term commitment. One unanswered question concerns the extent to which tradi-tional apprenticeship can help transfer basic technical skills to the burgeon-ing number of people enterburgeon-ing the informal sector. Expansion of coverage is inherently limited by the number of master craftspersons willing to provide training. On the other hand, the Kenya Jua Kali project, done on a relatively large scale, is a good example of scaling up (see appendix G).
Financial Sustainability
Full cost recovery has proven elusive in informal sector training. There is a legitimate role for targeted government subsidies for pre-entry courses that facilitate access by disadvantaged groups to self-employment. Cost recov-ery can be only minimal, or perhaps deferred. The case is less clear for in-service training because it carries few of the external benefits, and the informal sector operators benefit immediately. This suggests a policy of using subsidies for preservice courses but attempting to recover as much of the in-service training costs as possible, with increased cost-sharing gradu-ally replacing subsidies (Ziderman 2003, p. 161).