A proposal on

IMPROVING ARTISANAL SKILLS AND

COMPETENCE THROUGH (IN)FORMAL
TRAINING PLATFORMS
ADEL ABU O. S. ( PhD)
Industrial Design Depart.
S c h o o l o f E n v i r o n m e n t a l Te c h . ,
FUTA
Outline
• INTRODUCTION
• RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
• GOAL OF THE STUDY
• METHOD
• EXPECTED OUTCOME
INTRODUCTION
• Who is an artisan? a skilled craft worker who makes or creates
handmade products that may be functional or strictly decorative such
as furniture, decorative arts, sculptures, clothing, shoes, jewellery,
household items and tools among others.
• Artisans are expected to deliver or showcase adequate skills in
carrying out their duties.
• Three major concepts are observable in relation to the delivery of
artisans’ duties which are: skill, competence and productivity.
• These concepts are inter-related but not the same.
 INTRODUCTION
• A skill is an ability to do something well which has been acquired by
training.
• Competency is the capability to apply or use a set of related
knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform
"critical work functions" or tasks in a defined work setting.
• Productivity is strongly linked to the creation of value such that high
productivity is achieved when activities and resources in the
manufacturing transformation process add value to the produced
products (Tangen, 2002).
• There is possibility for a gap to exist in the area of skill, competence
and productivity of an artisan.
 Skill

Productivity

Competence

How skill and competence relate to productivity

 INTRODUCTION

• In line with Nigeria’s commitment to improving the living standard

of its citizens which has led to the introduction of a long-term
economic programme tagged Vision 20:2020 (Adewale, Siyanbola
and Siyanbola, 2014), researches based on solving the problems of
skills gap among artisans cannot be ignored.
• This can be achieved by developing an educational framework that
combines formal and informal learning approaches, specifically
designed to boost artisans’ productivity.
• In recent times, the global trends of educational researches have
shifted focus on promoting educational sustainability.
 INTRODUCTION

• According to United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO, 2017), education for sustainable
development (ESD) aims to develop competencies that enable and
empower individuals to reflect on their own actions by taking into
account their current and future social, cultural, economic and
environmental impacts from both a local and a global perspective.
• Owing to the inability to access information, many artisans with a
certain skill set are not aware of products that they can make, modify,
or easily develop to meet new needs: design intervention can thus
help generate awareness among artisans of methods, materials, tools
and processes that serve as value addition to their products
(UNESCO, 2005).
 INTRODUCTION

It is hoped that this interactive learning platform could also help

artisans to understand and assess the impact of their products and
services on the environmental, socio-cultural and economic facets of
the society.
RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
• Prevalent high rate of youths’ unemployment in the country, artisanal
practices seems to be a saving grace towards self-reliance.
• Lack of adequate skills and competence as expected of artisans.
• Prevalence in the act of ‘quackery’ in areas of established fields of study
and professional practices.
• There is need to incorporate formal education into the informal trainings
artisans have received so as enhance a more sustainable artisanal practice.
• To this end, this research is proposed.
THEORIES
• Why (re)learning through (in)formal platform is necessary in order to
foster education for sustainability with respect to improving artisanal
skills and competence for maximum productivity can be best
understood by understanding tacit and explicit knowledge.
• As observed by (Smith, 2001), tacit knowledge entails practical,
action-oriented knowledge of “know-how” based on practice,
acquired by personal experience, seldom expressed openly and often
resembles intuition while explicit knowledge is an academic
knowledge or “know-what” that is described in formal language,
print or electronic media, often based on established work processes
which use people-to-documents approach.
Tacit
(implied)

Explicit
(expressed)

Dimensions of knowledge
 THEORIES

• It is noteworthy that artisans possess rich tacit knowledge while

academic scholars possess rich explicit knowledge in their various
fields of study.
• A great part of a craft practitioner’s knowledge is internalised (Wood,
Rust & Horne (2009).
• Tacit knowledge is gained experientially, through undertaking the
actions and absorbing the principles (Polanyi, 1966). To explain tacit
knowing at a deeper level, Polanyi used two terms: the proximal (that
situated nearer to oneself) and the distal (that situated further from
oneself).
 Interiorisation

Principle Practice

Proximal Distal

Practice Principle

‘Destructive’ Analysis

Polanyi’s Theory
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study is to:

develop formal and informal learning platforms for enhancing

artisanal skills and competence with a view to empowering local
artisans for maximum productivity.
 The specific objectives are to:
investigate into the skill and competency gaps existing among
1.
selected artisans;

2. develop a curricular framework to address the gaps;

develop interactive informal and formal training platform to

3.
address the existing knowledge gap;

evaluate the outcome of the learning experience in terms of impact

4.
on artisans’ level of productivity.
METHODS
Obj. 1 Survey Method – Use of questionnaires and interview to investigate the
gaps in skills and competency of selected artisans within Akure city

Obj. 2 Focus group – to design a curricular framework to fill the knowledge gap

Obj. 3 Interactive training workshop – develop a formal-informal learning

platform for selected artisans

Obj. 4 Evaluation – use of questionnaires and interview to get feedback on the

training in order to assess the level of impact on the productivity of trained
artisans.
EXPECTED OUTCOME
The research is expected to contribute to knowledge in the following ways:
• open a new vista to informal and formal collaborative efforts among
academic professionals in design-related fields and practicing artisans.
• it will serve as a pathway to sustainable development by enhancing
artisanal skills and competence for maximum productivity to meet societal
needs.
• it will serve as an impetus for the artisans to develop indigenous products
and home-grown services that can compete favourably at both local and
international markets in terms of best practices and consumers’
satisfaction.
THANKS
FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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Introduction

Rationale for the study

Goal of the study

Method

Expected outcome
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Goal of the study

Goal of the study