Targeting & Incentives in Ghana’s National Apprenticeship Program

Youth unemployment is a major policy problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. Apprenticeships are a promising avenue to address youth unemployment as they provide relevant occupational skills training and work experience in the private sector. In this project we conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of the National Apprenticeship Program (NAP) in Ghana. NAP is a government program that is overseen by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET). The program is targeted at young people who are unable to continue their education beyond Junior Secondary School. Applicants to the program were assigned to treatment and control groups. They were then placed with firms who were willing to provide the training. The assignment of apprentices to trainers was randomized conditional on apprentice preferences and geographical proximity. This design enables us to ascertain the effect of NAP on youth labor market outcomes as well as participating firm productivity and profitability.