Getting Rural Workers Into Urban Jobs: Evidence from a Training and Placement Program in India

The effectiveness of training and placement programs is often limited by the scarcity of job opportunities. We study a program targeted to rural high-school dropouts in India, in a context where job vacancies abound but finding workers who will join when offered a job is difficult. In collaboration with a private training provider and the government of Odisha, we evaluate three interventions which aim at improving the mobilization and screening of trainees. The first one uses questionnaires and psychometric tests at the moment of enrollment to identify candidates with the highest probability of placement and retention. The second uses parents of candidates who were successfully placed as ambassadors to find new recruits. The third trains mobilizers (e.g., to the use of videos) to streamline information provided about potential jobs.