(DDM) – The Igbo apprenticeship system has long stood as one of Africa’s most coherent models for professional formation, enterprise succession, and competency validation.
DDM gathered that the system emphasizes verified capability, ethical conduct, economic relevance, and social trust rather than academic credentialism.
Learning occurs through immersion under a master practitioner who continuously observes, guides, and assesses apprentices on technical competence, judgment, reliability, and ethical comportment.
Recognition is earned through demonstrable mastery, culminating in a formal settlement that grants the apprentice independent professional standing within the commercial ecosystem.
Omniversity Imperial College Lagos Nigeria mirrors this philosophy in its competency-based evaluation framework, operating exclusively within Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning, Competency-Based Education, Structured Recognition, and ISO-aligned governance standards.
The institution does not operate within Nigeria’s statutory university degree system and does not award NUC-regulated academic degrees. Instead, its awards are explicitly professional, practice-based, competency-validated, and aligned with industry needs.
Omniversity institutionalizes the mentorship and assessment functions of the Igbo system through professional panels, qualified assessors, evidence-based evaluations, portfolios, applied projects, interviews, and competency mapping.
The framework formalizes what has historically been informal yet rigorous in Igbo commercial culture: validating real capability through sustained performance under supervision.
Omniversity offers a structured professional pathway analogous to the Igbo settlement phase. Its Bachelor of Practice recognizes foundational competence, the Master of Practice validates advanced applied mastery and leadership, and the Doctor of Practice confirms terminal professional authority grounded in industry impact.
The Professor of Practice designation further reflects indigenous recognition traditions, honoring distinguished professionals for verifiable leadership, mentorship, and societal contribution. It is not an academic rank but aligns with global norms emphasizing lived expertise and governance maturity.
Regulatory clarity is central to Omniversity’s framework. Nigerian law reserves universities for degree-awarding authority, while professional institutes operate under corporate and professional governance. Omniversity functions lawfully as a professional education provider and competency assessment body without NUC accreditation.
Professional affiliations with NITAD and CILRM reinforce ethical standards, leadership development, and professional validation without misrepresenting academic authority.
Progression through Omniversity’s programs is sequential, competency-driven, and evidence-based, with no level granted automatically or honorarily. Certificates carry clear legends indicating their professional, non-academic nature, mirroring the Igbo principle that status is earned and socially recognized through demonstrated competence.
Honorary recognitions at Omniversity replicate Igbo practices, awarded strictly for measurable impact in business, education, leadership, or community development, separate from formal professional qualifications.
Experts argue that Omniversity Imperial College exemplifies how indigenous African knowledge systems, like the Igbo apprenticeship, can be formalized into globally intelligible, legally compliant, and professionally credible frameworks.
The approach validates that Africa’s indigenous systems are foundational architectures capable of producing resilient professionals and sustainable economic ecosystems, demonstrating the enduring value of competency-based, practice-driven education.
