The Effects of Providing Post-training Assistance to Participants in Skill Development Programs amid the Covid-19 Crisis
Researchers conducted phone surveys with participants in skill development programs to identify students’ livelihood-related requirements after the onset of the pandemic. Data was collected on students’ employment status before and during the lockdown, migration status, challenges faced in searching for new jobs or in existing jobs, emotional challenges, and their plans for the future. This descriptive study is a part of larger randomized evaluation studying the impact of providing additional information and resources to those who have completed skill development programs on their employment outcomes.
Project Summary
Location: Maharashtra (districts of Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Mumbai Suburban, Nagpur, Palghar, Raigad, Thane, and Wardha)
Sample: 1,000 participants in a vocational training program
Timeline: August 2020 – April 2021
J-PAL Initiatives providing funding: Post-primary Education
Target group: Job seekers; Students (participants in a vocational training program)
Outcome of interest: Employment; Earnings and income (labor market outcomes for the wage-employed and self-employed)
Covid-19 dimensions: Economic shocks on individuals, households and SMEs; Migration and condition of migrants; Mental health and well-being
Mode of data collection: Computer-assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) / phone surveys
Nature of activities: Data collection (surveys); Use of administrative data
Research paper(s): N/A
Project Details
In recent years, globalization has provided firms access to cheaper labor markets and simultaneously, there has been a rapid increase in demand for skilled labor within growing economies. In a country like India, with a working age population of 756 million, governments have been working to harness these favorable labor market dynamics to generate employment opportunities. However, a lack of adequate corresponding skill development has persisted, prompting the government to implement nationwide skill training programs to ensure that young jobseekers have the skills to meet demands of a changing labor market and technology environment.
So far, policy reports and prior studies suggest that these programs have had little impact on the livelihood of the youth. In this context, researchers are evaluating the impact of providing additional information and resources to those who have completed skills training programs on employment outcomes. This post-training assistance program, launched under a youth skill development movement called Yuva Parivartan (YP), includes providing both wage-employed and self-employed trainees access to additional information and resources such as online training content and either group or one-to-one assistance to help make them ready for employment. The assistance was delivered using WhatsApp, a messaging application on smartphones that was already being used by YP to disseminate information and facilitate peer-to-peer interaction.
This descriptive study includes a data collection exercise, as a part of the larger randomized evaluation, to shed light on the importance of providing comprehensive support to participants in skill training programs, especially amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
The pre-Covid intervention for this study focused on providing livelihood assistance such as entrepreneurship development programs and trade-specific job alerts as a part of the skill development courses offered by YP. After India’s nationwide lockdown was imposed in March 2020, the state of Maharashtra was one of the worst affected in India and YP’s Livelihood Development Centres were shut indefinitely. The study was then redesigned to provide livelihood virtual assistance to the students in the midst of extended lockdown restrictions.
Researchers conducted phone surveys to understand the livelihood and migration status of the students registered in YP’s skill development programs during the lockdown, prompting the inclusion of the following rounds of data collection:
- The first round (August-September 2020) was conducted with participants in the post-training assistance program to identify their livelihood-related requirements after the onset of the pandemic. Data was collected on students’ employment status before and during the lockdown, migration status, challenges faced in either searching for new jobs or in existing jobs/businesses, emotional challenges during the lockdown, and their plans for the following three months.
- The ongoing endline survey (January-March 2021) includes data collection on the current livelihood and migration status of the students and their labor market perceptions after lockdown restrictions were relaxed in Maharashtra.
Research Results
Results forthcoming.