Training/Mentoring

This study finds that vocational training and apprenticeships both raise employment of poor Ugandan youth, but vocational training provides general skills that foster mobility and result in higher earnings.

Adhvaryu, Kala and Nyshadham (2017) evaluate the causal impacts of on-the-job soft skills training on the productivity, wages, and retention of female garment workers in India. The program increased women’s extraversion and communication, and spurred technical skill upgrading.

Firms in poor countries are much smaller than firms in rich countries, with the modal firm being a single person, the owner. Meanwhile, youth unemployment and underemployment are widespread.

Adhvaryu, Nyshadham and Tamayo (2017) study 5 distinct factors of managerial quality that are likely to impact learning by doing within the firm: vocation-specific experience, managerial autonomy, cognitive skills, personality, and demographic relatability to workers.

Preliminary results indicate that trainees have strong preferences over salary and job locations and their placement officers (who are solely responsible for trainee placements) have poor knowledge of these preferences.

In partnership with a large garment factory in India, this project designs and implements a randomized controlled trial to study the impact of a year-long, in-depth soft skills training programme aimed at empowering low-skilled female labourers.

This study examines the impact of training microentrepreneurs in Bangladesh in green production methods on ecological outcomes and business practices.

Providing entrepreneurs with business skills to help them grow their firms is important. But one size does not fit all - can better targeting of training programmes achieve greater returns to policymakers' investments?

Can internship programmes provide young entrepreneurs with valuable experiential learning on successful management practices?