Which design features of the Kenyan AJIRA Program have the most impact?

Labor market indicators for youth in Kenya are worse than those for individuals aged 25 to 64 years. For example, the unemployment rate amongst the Kenyan youth aged 15 to 24 years is 13% compared to 5.1% for those aged 25 to 64 years. Although aggregate labor market conditions influence the status of young people in the labor market, potential employers also point to skills mismatch and little or misdirected preparedness for the labor market. The AJIRA Digital Program trains Kenyan youth in soft skills, in addition to technical and vocational training. The program introduces young people to online work and provides the tools, training and mentorship needed for young people to work and earn an income through online workspace. Its goal is to enable one million Kenyan youth to earn a decent wage from digital and digitally-enabled jobs annually. It is important to carry out an impact evaluation of the AJIRA training and mentorship activities, but no such evaluation has been conducted to date. The goal of this project is to develop a proposal that leads to an impact evaluation of these activities using randomized controlled trials.