Enhancing Employment Outcomes of Vocational School Graduates: A Pilot Intervention with Counselling and Training

The project aims to measure the impact of the two proposed interventions on the employment rates of students in the months following graduation, i.e. in the period of first entry in the labour market. To this end, a counterfactual evaluation of the programme will be implemented, involving a comparison between the students benefiting from counselling services or teacher training (treatment groups) and a
comparison group of students that did not participate in the intervention (control group). Students will be randomly assigned to the treatment arms and the control group.

2023-11-28

2025-07-31

The expected result of the experiment is a better integration of young graduates from vocational schools into the labour market. The primary outcome of interest will be the employment rate and earnings.
According to our evaluation design, we will be able to distinguish 3 groups of students. First, we will observe outcomes for students who will directly participate in counselling activities, i.e. in treated classes in schools where treatment A is implemented (group 1). Second, will observe outcomes for students whose teachers will be involved in training activities, i.e. in schools where treatment B is implemented (group 2). According to our research design, students in group 1 and group 2 do not overlap, as treatment A and B will be implemented in different schools. Third, we will observe outcomes for 'control' students who were randomly denied both treatments (group 3). Our design will allow us to assess the (possibly) different effects of the two interventions.
For this purpose, all student groups involved in the experiment will be monitored throughout the duration of the program (to check participation and collect individual data) and in the months following their graduation, to track job search activities and employment outcomes. Information must be collected for both the treatment groups A and B, and for the control group.

To this end, we plan to use different data sources.

1. Baseline and follow up surveys conducted with students
We plan to conduct two surveys, one to be administered online to students before the start of the counselling programme (baseline survey) and one to be conducted a few months after graduation (follow up survey) via telephone and web interviews. The first survey will collect students’ sociodemographic information, as well as qualitative information on preferences and life plans. The follow-up survey will aim at monitoring employment and other relevant outcomes. The baseline survey will begin in January 2024 and will be administered to final-year students in both treated and control schools. By this time, all students will be over 18 years old.

2. Baseline and follow up surveys conducted with teachers
In schools assigned to Treatment B, we plan to conduct a short baseline online survey among teachers who enroll in the training sessions. This survey will gather information about their demographics, subjects they teach, years of experience, any previous experience in field of labour market orientation, and the specific classes they are responsible for. This information will help us connect treated teachers and their respective students.
Subsequently, a follow-up survey will be implemented at the end of the 2023/2024 school years. Its primary objective will be ascertain whether the teachers have effectively applied the knowledge and skills acquired during the training sessions.

3. Administrative data
We also plan to rely on administrative registers that can provide information on the employment status of school graduates in our sample.

Among other outcomes of interest are type of contract, sector of employment, type of occupation, job search effort, and enrolment in tertiary education.

The project aims to measure the impact of the two proposed interventions on the employment rates of students in the months following graduation, i.e. in the period of first entry in the labour market. To this end, a counterfactual evaluation of the programme will be implemented, involving a comparison between the students benefiting from counselling services or teacher training (treatment groups) and a
comparison group of students that did not participate in the intervention (control group). Students will be randomly assigned to the treatment arms and the control group.

More specifically, we plan to implement a three-armed RCT (Randomised Controlled Trial). This trial will involve comparing three groups: Treatment Arm A (providing counselling services for students), an inactive control, and an alternative Treatment Arm B (offering training for teachers).

Not available

Schools will be grouped into strata based on relevant characteristics, such as region, local labour market outcomes, school size. Within each stratum, we will randomly select a proportional number of schools to achieve a balanced representation in the final sample of approximately 120 schools. After this stratified selection, schools will be randomly divided into three equally-sized subgroups. We will review the characteristics of the selected schools within each subgroup to ensure balance. We will adjust the selection to minimize imbalances in relevant characteristics. Finally, each subgroup of schools will be randomly assigned to a treatment or control group.

In schools assigned to the students Treatment, we will implement a random selection process to choose one of the eligible six vocational school tracks from the available options. Subsequently, we will implement job counselling services in a maximum of two final-year classes within that track. In other words, at least one of the selected classes will pertain to the chosen vocational school track.

In schools assigned to the teacher Treatment, teachers will be invited to participate in an online training focusing on how to provide job counselling to their students. The training sessions will be primarily targeted to teachers in charge of orientation of final-year students, yet they may be open to other colleagues of the same school.

We randomly select schools into participation in the project, and then into the two treatment and control group. Finally, among schools assigned to the student treatment we randomly select a school track out of the six eligible ones.

Yes

120 schools

At least 700 students per group of schools.

40 schools Treatment A, 40 schools Treatment B, 40 schools Control group.

A difference of 10 percentage points between the outcomes of students in ‘treatment’ and ‘control’ schools will be detected as statistically significant if computed from groups of at least 700 students in about 35 schools, assuming an intercluster correlation coefficient (ICC) of 5%. These calculations assume a binary outcome (for example, employment status) and equal size of the two groups, 5% of significance level of outcome differences and 80% power, and an average class size of 20 students in each school involved. Based on these estimates, and to be on the safe side, we plan to select around 40 schools in each treatment group. In schools assigned to Treatment A, considering two treated classes in each school, this corresponds to about 1600 students (assuming an average of 20 students per class). In schools assigned to Treatment B, we plan to involve at least 160 teachers involved in orientation activities for final-year students (assuming an average of 4 teachers per school).