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Buoyed by the need to figure out the challenges faced in Onitsha markets and other parts of the state, Dr. Obiora Okonkwo has sponsored a special research which seeks to identify the cause of the seeming decline in apprenticeship practice as a business training model.
This research which which was launched at the the business school of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, UNIZIK Business School will probe into the seeming dwindling of apprenticeship practice as business training model in the South East.
Dr. Obiora Okonkwo who is a Political Economist sponsored the research titled: Invigorating Igbo Entrepreneurial Behaviour Through Enhanced Apprenticeship Scheme: A Study of Onitsha Markets, Anambra State, through the Pro-Value Humanity Foundation.
Speaking at the event which held at Sharon Hall, Onitsha Dr. Okonkwo said: “The apprenticeship scheme in its original model has, undoubtedly, served us well up to this point. However, the world of commerce is drastically changing and we must reinvent the apprenticeship system to be responsive to the business and industrial needs of today, along with the skills acquisition and value chain such new processes require.
“Such reinvention may also include mentorship, partnerships, financial assistance by way of soft loans, loan guarantees, among others between established businesses and emerging ones. These will help continue the Ora Nwezue Aku philosophy that was a key driving force of the apprenticeship scheme.
“As we all can agree, the only thing constant in life is change and we can either innovate and adjust to the times or gradually slide into irrelevance. Further, it is vital that the project also help identify emergent entrepreneurial and investment opportunities, including hi-tech and biotech start-ups with potential value chains that current generation Igbo Entrepreneurs can key into to help drive the re-industrialization of Anambra State in particular and the South East in general.”
InlandTown! 2020
