Apprenticeship Training as Preparation for Self· Employment

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa face severe unemployment problems. These problems are due to high population growth rates and declining economic performance (Charmes, 1990). In Kenya, the population grew at an average rate of four percent annually in the 1970s and started to decline in the 1980s following concerted family planning efforts. By 1991, the annual population growth fell to 3.5%. Despite reduced population growth, the economic growth rate has not kept pace. The unemployment problem is so severe that Kenya will need to produce six million new jobs by the year 2000 (Republic of Kenya, 1989). Achieving the needed 5.6% annual growth rate is elusive (Republic of Kenya, 1986). For example, in 1991, only 90,000 new jobs were created for the 250,000 individuals who left school in that year. Each year thousands of disillusioned young people enter the ranks of the unemployed. Job seekers who fail to fmd employment in the "modem sector" inevitably gravitate to the informal sector as employees or as selfemployed owners of enterprises. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that only one out of ten dropouts are able to locate employment in the modem sector (ILO, 1988). The remaining nine must seek employment in the informal sector or initiate some type of self-employment.