This paper investigates the learning of young people involved in learning a trade in Senegal, West Africa. Fieldwork took place at two contrasting sites, one a workshop where young men were apprenticed to a tailor and the other a vocational training centre where young women were also learning tailoring. The research addresses the relationship between the formal skills of literacy and numeracy and the practical skills involved in learning a trade in the two different settings and raises the issue of what constitutes successful learning in these vocational contexts. Observation, interviews and some specially designed activities were used to probe the way that the young people engaged with scripted materials. The article suggests that the formal educational experience was less important than the relevance of the activities to the young people's current and prospective vocational identities. Learning thus emerges as social practice rather than a purely cognitive activity. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)