Follow-Up Surveys of Firms, Master Crafts Persons (MCP) and Apprentices in Nigeria

The Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills (IDEAS) Project was a World Bank-assisted programme implemented to promote private-public partnerships in skills development and youth employment in Nigeria. The project supported the development of structured apprenticeship training among selected informal sector clusters in six pilot States: Abia State, Benue State, Edo State, Ekiti State, Gombe State, and Kano State. The project was implemented in partnership with the National Board for Technical Education, the Development Impact Evaluation Unit of the World Bank (DIME-WB), and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab through a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) designed to generate evidence on improving apprenticeship systems, skills certification, and youth training outcomes.

The survey implementation involved both quantitative and qualitative follow-up data collection among firms, master craft persons (MCPs), and apprentices across the six project States. Quantitative data were collected from 1,347 firms, 2,052 MCPs, and 3,483 apprentices through face-to-face interviews conducted with programmed questionnaires on tablets over a 10-week period between December 2025 and February 2026. The qualitative component included 12 focus group discussions with apprentices and 24 key informant interviews with MCPs.