Traditional apprenticeship scheme is an indigenous institutional training framework predominately practiced among ethnic groups in Nigeria for youths empowerment, poverty reduction and jobs creation. The study therefore, determined the adaptability of the unorthodox model within the modern economic landscape among various ethnic groups (Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Bini/Esan and Others) in Benin-City, Nigeria. Using the descriptive survey research design, all the small business owners who were formal apprentices comprised the study population while 150 were purposively selected as sample representatives. The data gathering adopted a 40-item structured questionnaire having 0.87 as the reliability co-efficient value and was analyzed using the mean and standard deviation to address the four research questions and ascertain the respondents’ homogeneity while the two formulated hypotheses were tested using the t-test technique and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed among others that the unorthodox incubation model, stimulates economic development through employment generation but mostly practiced by the Igbos and sparingly by other ethnic groups. Also, that the incubation model provides the apprentices (Nwaboi) technical training and mentorship in business startup and effective management including capital outlay known as ‘settlement’ by the master (‘Oga’). Furthermore, numerous challenges such as informal structural framework, exploitation of the apprentices, gender imbalance, poor technology adoption among others bedeviled the scheme. It was therefore recommended among others that the incubation scheme should be integrated into entrepreneurship education policy/curriculum to address the soaring youths unemployment rate and to foster economic development in Nigeria.

Professor Obose Angela ORIAZOWANLAN is an erudite scholar from the University of Benin, Benin-City, Edo State of Nigeria and she obtained her PhD in 2013 from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria. She is the editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship, Technology and Innovation and a two-time recipient of the Institution-Based Tetfund Research Grant Award in 2014 and 2022 respectively. She has over forty publications in reputable journals and she is the author of the book; Entrepreneurship: An Innovative Approach.