The development of apprenticeship programs in several Latin American countries was investigated with a focus on the results of an industrial apprenticeship program in Santiago, Chile. The program studied was the Instituto Nacional de Capacitacion Profesional (INACAP), the national vocational training institute of Chile. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the INACAP's industrial apprenticeship program offered a plausible nonformal educational alternative to Chile's industrial-technical schools. The clientele of the INACAP program were from the more disadvantaged groups of the population, had rarely continued their schooling beyond the compulsory level, and entered the program to learn a trade more quickly than in vocational schools. Only about one-half of the graduates were working in their trained-for trades; nearly one quarter were unemployed. Most of the INACAP graduates had a higher or similar level of job performance as compared to their coworkers. Their higher earnings were not due to higher socioeconomic backgrounds. Although the apprenticeship program yielded higher rates of return than the industrial vocational school programs, a study of costs of both systems showed that the yearly investment per student was slightly higher in the apprenticeship program. (Some policy implications are discussed.) (YLB)