How Young Apprentices in Lokoja Are Beating Unemployment With Skills

By Dada Ahmed.

Young Nazir learning vulgarnizing with enthusiasm.,resilience and commitment.

On a bright Sunday at Gadumo-Ganaja Road, Lokoja, Kogi State,an unassuming scene unfolded: a car rolled into a vulgarnizer workshop with a flat tyre, and while the vulcaniser reached for his working tools, a small boy appeared beside him, helping pump the tyre.

That boy, Nazir, is nine years old. He is an apprentice. No school‐bell rung; no textbook open. Just hands in grease, curiosity in his eyes, and a strong resolve: to learn a trade.

“I want to learn vulcanizing so that after school I’ll not be jobless,” Nazir told our correspondent. His words, spoken by a child, carry weight in a nation where paper qualifications are harder than ever to convert into gainful work.

Lokoja is no exception in this shifting narrative. Increasingly, young boys and girls are now keen to combine education with hands-on skills,tailoring, hairdressing, carpentry, electrical work, vulcanizing,to dodge unemployment’s looming shadow.

The reasons are plain. Experience shows that white-collar jobs are thinning. Public service, banking, large corporations,all seen previously as safe havens,are no longer baking enough opportunities to absorb all graduates.

For many parents here, the mindset is changing. Some now insist that alongside schooling, their children learn a trade. A sister learning hairdressing after school, a cousin helping with mechanical repairs,these are no longer viewed as last resorts but as lifelines.

For Nazir, the path is already set in his own small way. While still attending school, he spends time at the vulcanizer’s stand,learning tools, forms, and the work-ethic that classroom hours alone cannot teach.

But challenges remain. Access to good tools, safe working conditions, mentoring, and recognition for such early apprenticeships are inconsistent. Many families struggle financially to support both schooling and materials.

Experts note that without supportive infrastructure,well-equipped vocational centres, stable power supply, mentorship networks,many youthful trainees end up stuck in informal sectors with low earnings.

Government can do more. Beyond training, they must ensure policies that give young apprentices access to micro-loans, subsidised tools, formal recognition of their trade, and integration into local government or private sector contracts.

Schools can also adapt: integrate practical skills into curricula, allow for flexible schedules, partner with local tradespeople, and create apprenticeship pathways as respected alternatives to purely academic ones.

Back on Gadumo-Ganaja Road scene, the take away is that,while the tyre got fixed and Nazir’s clothes picked up some oil, something more durable was shaping up: a mindset. One where young boys and girls believe a future built with their hands, alongside their minds,is not fallback, but forward.