Informal training...Story of Philip Aidoo, the sucessful carpenter

March 13,2008

By Doreen Allotey
` Ghana’s education has been organised along two main lines—the formal and informal.
Informal vocation takes place in the form of apprenticeship agreements with craftsmen and trades people. Training is on the average, a period between two to four years but this depends on whether the “master” thinks that the apprentice has learned enough to become a senior and carry his good name wherever he or she goes.
The master also determines how long an apprentice who qualifies to be a “senior” would serve under him/her and whether the senior can work with him or her on commission or what is termed “work and pay” basis.
Thousands of Ghanaian youth are engaged as apprentices in the private or informal sector throughout the country. While some of these apprentices have formal education of some sort, others have never stepped into the classroom but are making it their own way through hard work, determination, discipline, humility and patience.
Apprenticeships available include fitting, spraying of vehicles, hairdressing, tailoring, masonry, welding, plumbing, shoemaking or how to mend shoes, catering and carpentry.
In the carpentry business, one of such persons is Mr Philip Aidoo who started his apprenticeship in 1984. He left his parents’ home in Mankessim in the Central Region to become an apprentice at the Akan Centre of Furniture in Mateheko in Accra for three years, after which his master graduated him as a senior. With this new status, Philip served his master for a couple of years.
He then worked at the centre, supervising some of the new apprentices for another couple of years. When he left the centre, it was to enable him work for different companies on different contracts for three years, gathering experience as he worked. He has since 1992 established a furniture shop at the Awudome Estates with the name Green Wood Furniture Works, opposite the famous Bongo Bar. He obtained his certificate of registration in 1993.
For the apprenticeship agreement, Philip’s parents paid ¢2,500, the equivalent of 25 Ghana pesewas today, to the master at the Akan Centre of Furniture. They also gave two crates of soft drinks, known in Ghanaian parlance as minerals, and a bottle of schnapps. But this was after he had completed a probation period of some weeks to enable his master to assess his character. He had just completed middle school form four then.
Philip had no one to stay with in Accra and, therefore, slept in his master’s shop, bathed and ate there.
“ It was quite difficult in those days. Money for food was hard to come by”, Philip recalls.
The furniture shop doubled as the classroom and a sort of boarding school for him. His determination to learn the trade was what kept him going. The other apprentices had places to live in Accra but out of the 24 of them, three dropped out along the way; they could not take the regiment of learning under the feet of their master.
As a master himself, Philip tries to maintain discipline at his shop and has trained more than 100 young men as carpenters. Currently, he has nine boys under his tutelage.
He has his own entry requirements which he says is similar to that of other masters of his status: A prospective apprentice has to attach himself to Green Wood for three months during which Philip would assess his character to find out if “he can really learn the job” and the apprentice must be above 16 years but not as old as 40.
“ It is quite difficult to teach the older ones”, Philip explains.
“ I once had a 40 year old man as an apprentice but he could not cope and fell out”, he said.
The apprentice then pays GH¢100 and presents two crates of minerals.
On acceptance of these, the apprentice has his colleagues to deal with; those who started learning before him; to them he owes GH¢20. That money is referred to as “Anbantem sika” for the new apprentice would surely learn something good or bad from them too and their co-operation would be invaluable.
Then comes the tools for the trade. “The apprentice should come with the basic; a hand saw, pincers, a hammer and planner”, Philip requires.
Philip does not countenance obstinacy and disrespect to seniors. Theft is an abhorrence and speaking politely is a must. Disregard for any of these attracts caning, suspension for a period or both.
Learning is by observation in stages.
“If it is making a table, I ask the apprentice to observe me making one. At another time I guide him to make the legs of the table and then we move on and on”, he said.
If after three years Philip is not satisfied with the progress of work, he adds on another year to make sure the apprentice is well baked. He has a name to protect.
During training, Philip occasionally fetes his apprentices when business is good. He makes sure they get health care during illness, but “ if it is a serious one , I send them to their parents,” he said.
On graduation, the apprentice turned “senior” pays to Philip another GH¢100, presents two crates of minerals a sheep. Graduation parties are optional but if the graduation coincides with a festivity like Christmas, the celebration is grand.
The challenges of the job as enumerated by Mr Aidoo include the high taxes to the Accra Metropolitan Authority, Internal Revenue Service, payments for utility services and the collection of waste products generated by the trade. At the end of the day almost every earning goes into such payments.
Mr Aidoo suggests that there should be some kind of assistance to enable carpenters acquire new technology in the form of machinery to make carpentry less labour intensive.
Formal and informal education bears a lot of similarities. Before the introduction of formal education in the 1800s, apprenticeship as a mode of training had already started. It’s contribution to national development is obvious and will continue to be with Ghanaians for a long time.