Research Support Assistant- Scoping study on young adults’ aspirations towards vocational education - J-PAL South Asia

Language Requirement: English, Hindi and/or Gujarati

Length of Commitment: 6 months

Name of the Project: Scoping study on young adults’ aspirations towards vocational education

Sector: Education, Labour

About the Organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center working to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of 194 affiliated professors at universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomized impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL South Asia, based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in India, leads J-PAL’s work in the South Asia region. J-PAL South Asia conducts randomized evaluations, builds partnerships for evidence-informed policymaking, and helps partners scale up effective programs. Over more than ten years of existence, J-PAL South Asia has conducted 193 ongoing and completed randomized evaluations.

About the position

J-PAL South Asia at the Institute for Financial Management and Research seeks qualified applicants for the position of Research Support Assistant to lead a scoping study in India. The position offers an opportunity to gain first-hand field management experience in an organization undertaking cutting-edge development research. The Research Support Assistant will join a team of world-class researchers from leading universities in the world and will gain first-hand experience implementing development field research. Read more about our work and projects here.

J-PAL South Asia is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes protected by law. We strongly encourage people from marginalized communities to apply for this role.

Project Specific Details

India’s National Education Policy (NEP, 2020) sets forth an ambitious agenda to transform education in India. Policies relating to vocational education in particular have undergone significant changes with a view to equip young Indians with 21st century skills. As children progress through schooling, they will be exposed to age appropriate activities that enhance their vocational skills, knowledge and work towards proficiency in chosen vocations by the end of grade 12. Notably, under recent reforms,vocational education will no longer be a subject students chose in lieu of other academic subjects, rather policies will open up a wide variety of educational streams with vocational courses being one among the many options.

Such a change in children’s “choice option” is expected to mitigate unfavorable attitudes towards vocational education as something children choose only when they are unable to perform well in “academic” subjects. By integrating a focus on vocational skills from an early age, this policy attempts to bring a holistic approach towards education in general.

This project will be conducted in partnership with NGO Lend a Hand India (LAHI), one of India’s largest organizations working on school-based vocational education, and will conduct research to inform programming at this nascent but critical juncture, and design future randomized evaluations institutionalize evidence-based improvements to program design and implementation. The study will focus on understanding aspirations and attitudes of children and their parents towards vocational training, how school personnel make decisions regarding content of training, and challenges faced by small and medium enterprises towards quality hiring. The study will also focus on different aspirations and expectations among young girls and boys. The findings from this scoping study will enable discussions for a future randomized evaluation, as a new vocational education curriculum is rolled out in grades 11-12 in the next academic year.

The study will involve conducting surveys and qualitative interviews with different stakeholders such as students, parents, teachers and government officials to gain a better understanding of the above-mentioned questions across two Indian states with strong LAHI presence - Gujarat and Jharkhand.

Research Support Assistants work closely with Research Managers & Principal Investigators who guide and supervise them in their various tasks. The research support assistant would be working closely with the LAHI and the state education departments to conduct surveys and key informant interviews, Thus, the research support assistant will obtain a rich experience across both the technical research skills and partnering with NGOs.

Key Responsibilities

Research Support Assistants work closely with academic researchers and other research and field staff to perform a variety tasks including, but not limited to:

Supporting the research activities:

Supporting the Research Associate in conducting qualitative research, running pilot exercises, refining survey instruments

Supporting the Research Associate to recruit, train, and supervise survey staff

Conducting key informant interviews and supervise data collection by field staff

Coordinating with the Administrative and Finance team on a variety of tasks related to field staff contracting and payments

Overseeing the implementation of the field data collection in accordance to the research design in association with our partner organization

Assisting in conducting data cleaning, preliminary data analysis, documentation

Reporting to PIs on all of the above-mentioned activities

Any other task as assigned by the Research Manager, AD Research or ED.

Desired Qualifications

• A Bachelor's/Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, education or related fields
• Experience living in a developing country is a strong plus
• Previous experience in development research preferred
• Fluency and excellent communication skills in English, Hindi and or Gujarati.
• Familiarity with Stata (strongly preferred) or other data analysis software
• Familiarity with Qualitative research techniques desirable
• Excellent management and organizational skills
• Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and team player
• Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environment
• Ability to work independently and in rural field locations.

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.