Mobilitza't Mobile: Bringing young unemployed back into formal education and labor market.

Last registered on February 28, 2017

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Mobilitza't Mobile: Bringing young unemployed back into formal education and labor market.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002011
Initial registration date
February 28, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 28, 2017, 4:41 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Catalan Institute of Public Policy Evaluation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Catalan Institute of Public Policy Evaluation
PI Affiliation
Catalan Institute of Public Policy Evaluation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2014-04-01
End date
2016-11-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Eight years after the 2008 economic crisis, high unemployment rates among youths combined with school dropout rates significantly above the European average have left Spain with an important population of undereducated youth who are neither working, nor in education or training (NEETs). Concretely, NEETs without higher secondary education represent 7.9% of Barcelona's total population aged 16 to 24. Reconsidering their decision towards post-obligatory education, and increasing their academic training, could improve labor market prospects for these youth group. A randomly selected subset of NEETs with lower secondary education certificates were offered a 9 months professional training on the Mobile sector with the objective of bringing them back to education and labor. Fifteen months after the finalization of the program, youths who were randomly selected to participate in the training were more likely to have a permanent contract and to have a job which better fitted their education level. Although no significant impacts were found in terms of general labor market participation, the point estimates were always positive and showing a clear positive trend, indicating that effects could come in the longer term. Finally, no impacts were found on enrollment rates in higher education programs. Dropout rates before completion for the training program were significantly high.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Alegre, Miquel, Jordi Sanz and Federico Todechini. 2017. "Mobilitza't Mobile: Bringing young unemployed back into formal education and labor market.." AEA RCT Registry. February 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2011-1.0
Former Citation
Alegre, Miquel, Jordi Sanz and Federico Todechini. 2017. "Mobilitza't Mobile: Bringing young unemployed back into formal education and labor market.." AEA RCT Registry. February 28. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2011/history/14515
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Mobilitza't Mobile:
The intervention consists on a 9 months professional training for youths aged 16 to 24 who are neither working, nor in education or training (NEETs). The training program is structured on four complementary blocks that revolve around the Mobile sector, and go beyond traditional education schemes. More concretely, the program includes:

* "Academy": Participants are taught how to program Mobile Applications and commercialize Mobile devices.
* "Job Search": Professional support on job searching, personal marketing and career orientation.
* "Job Market": Social and training activities focused on increasing participants' knowledge on Barcelona's Mobile industry, led by mentors from leading firms.
* "Community": Networking and social activities aimed towards introducing the participants in the Mobile industry.

The program was implemented in two waves, with 120 participants each. The first one took place from June 2014 to February 2015, while the second one expanded from November 2015 to July 2016.
Intervention Start Date
2014-06-01
Intervention End Date
2015-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
* Monthly labor participation
* Labor participation quality
* Job quality
* Return to formal education
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
* Monthly labor participation: whether the individual has worked or not each month between the time when the program started and June 2016.

* Labor participation quality: overall number months worked and job duration.

* Job quality: desirable job characteristics, like having a permanent contract, having a contract related to the Mobile sector or which fits workers' educational level.

* Return to formal education; whether the individual has enrolled to a higher secondary education program during 2015-2016 academic year.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
1. Initially, 432 youth applied to participate in the Mobilitza't Mobile training program.
2. Among those, 173 where discarded given that they did not qualify with the eligibility criteria: having completed lower secondary education, being unemployed and being 16 to 24 years old.
3. Among the remaining eligible 259 individuals, 19 were selected to be treated as "reserve participants" to fill in possible dropouts during the program duration.
4. Finally, the remaining 240 youths (interested and eligible) were randomized in order to be evenly assigned either to the treatment (120) or the control group (120).
5. The program was offered in two waves, with 60 participants each.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
240 young NEETs
Sample size: planned number of observations
240 young NEETs
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
120 young NEETs in control group
120 young NEETs in treatment group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
0.35 standard deviations
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
July 31, 2015, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
September 30, 2016, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
233 young NEETs
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
233 young NEETs
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
117 NEETs control group 116 NEETs treatment group
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials