The study was a pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent control group quasi-experiment, involving students in intact classes. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population and sample for the study consisted of all 64 National Technical Certificate (NTC) II students of fabrication and welding engineering craft practice in Ekiti State. These comprise 53 males and 11 females. The instruments used for data collection were the fabrication and welding achievement test and fabrication and welding interest inventory.  The instruments were subjected to face and content validation by three experts. The reliability coefficients of the instruments are 0.79, 0.75 and 0.82 respectively. Mean was used to answer research questions, while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses. The mean score of girls was not significantly different from those of boys in the achievement test. There was a significant difference in the mean interest and retention scores of students based on gender. 

 

Key words: Cognitive apprenticeship, gender, cognitive achievement, interest, retention, fabrication and welding.