An approach is presented for client initiated provisioning. A provisioning manager determines a client-based trigger for requesting a provisioning of a client device to access a network. The provisioning manager processes and/or facilitates a processing of the client-based trigger to generate a provisioning request, and then causes, at least in part, transmission of the provisioning request to a provisioning server associated with the network. The provisioning manager receives provisioning information from the provisioning server for processing to gain access to the network.