Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

This paper discusses the manpower development potential of skills training occurring outside formal vocational and technical programs in Kenya. It is argued that apprenticeships in independent small-scale manufactures in the informal sector are contributing to unemployment relief and upgrading the skills of young prospective workers. The results of informal sector surveys conducted in Kenya are reviewed and compared with data collected in the developing market economies concerning the general structural characteristics of informal economies and their patterns of skills formation. The need for adequate descriptive research into Kenyan informal apprenticeships and some of the potential policy applications of such research are also discussed.