From Classroom to Career: Empowering Young Women through Skilling and Placement in Uttar Pradesh

Last registered on January 22, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
From Classroom to Career: Empowering Young Women through Skilling and Placement in Uttar Pradesh
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016596
Initial registration date
January 18, 2026

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
January 22, 2026, 7:06 AM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Tanika Chakraborty
Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-10-01
End date
2028-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Gender, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
labor force participation, higher education, career guidance and choice, persuasion
JEL code(s)
J21, D9, J16
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The proposed study will attempt to bridge the gap that has been identified in terms of information about jobs on offer, needs, prospects and career growth and aspirations of the candidates. We will attempt to understand how providing information, correcting expectations of potential future employees about the prospective career pathways available post-training and changing attitudes and gender stereotypes can help students understand the evolving job market, and identify the job-market returns from such training. This will then eventually lead to more informed decision-making on the part of the students, thereby leading to increased enrollment of students in training programs more suited to the students and where there exists a demand for labour despite the existence of traditional social norms. The important role of the art of persuading the important decision-maker within the household through effective and clear communication will also be emphasized on in this study. This study will help address the disconnect between education and the skills expected by potential employers from the workforce, which often leads to either employment in low-skilled jobs due to the lack of appropriate skills and vocational training or low female labour force participation, both of which are matters of great concern.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chakraborty, Tanika. 2026. "From Classroom to Career: Empowering Young Women through Skilling and Placement in Uttar Pradesh." AEA RCT Registry. January 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16596-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
For this study, about 3,100 girl students enrolled in standards 8, 10 and 12 from 110 different schools (in urban as well as rural regions) in the district of Kanpur Nagar in the state of Uttar Pradesh (to be selected based on logistics and administrative data available) will be randomly assigned to two treatment and one control group. While 60 schools will be randomly assigned to the two treatment groups (30 in each of the two treatments), 50 schools will be assigned to the control group. Randomization will be done at the school-level. Between 25-35 girls (and 30 students on average) will be randomly selected from each of these schools for this study, thus giving us a total of about 1,700 treatment and 1,400 control students.
Intervention Start Date
2026-01-20
Intervention End Date
2026-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Knowledge of the current job market, including awareness of available occupations, educational requirements, and typical earnings associated with different education and career paths, Perceived returns to education, willingness to continue higher education, willingness to participate in LF., educational persistence and transitions: actual school enrollment and dropout between grades.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
gender attitudes and norms, attitudes towards womens employment, gender stereotypes regarding appropriate roles, occupations, and mobility for women, beliefs about gender equality and discrimination in education, work, and household decision-making. Career aspirations and choices, family environment and parental support: quality of relationship with parents, including communication and perceived trust, perceived parental support for continued education and labour force participation.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The design of the enrolment arm RCT will be as follows:

Treatment 1 (Information treatment only): About 850 girl students from 30 schools will be randomly assigned to the Information treatment. This intervention will focus on providing information to the girl students about the current job market scenario, returns from the job market for students with specific skills and understanding ways to fulfill hopes and aspirations by effective planning and thinking beyond gender stereotypes and existing gender norms.

Treatment 2 (Information treatment & art of persuasion session): The remaining 850 girl students from the other 30 treatment schools will be assigned to this second treatment. In addition to the information dissemination component, the girls will be counselled, and taught the art of persusasion and effective communication so that they can go back home and reach out to their parents to persuade and convince their parents to allow them to fulfill their deams. This is a particularly interesting component of the study given that girl students will have limited mobility, decision making power and autonomy and often restricted by biased attitudes and gender stereotypes and including the parents (the primary decision-maker or gatekeeper for these girls) in the study may have an added effect beyond the information effect.

The sessions will employ both audio and visual modes of instruction, including in-person lectures supported by PowerPoint slides, video presentations, and live demonstrations.

Control Group: The remaining (about) 1,400 students from the last 50 schools in the control arm will receive none of the interventions. We will compare the treatment to the control arm of the study to causally estimate the effect of the information and the art of persuasion sessions separately.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
Randomization will be conducted at the school level. Of the 110 schools, 60 schools will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment arms (30 schools per treatment), and 50 schools will be assigned to a control group.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
There will be a total of 110 clusters or schools in this study.
Sample size: planned number of observations
On an average there will be between 25-35 students (and 30 on average) that will be selected from each school for this study. Thus giving us a total of about 3,100 students.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Within each selected school, approximately 25–35 girls (30 on average) will be randomly sampled from enrollment lists, yielding a total sample of about 1,700 students in treatment schools and 1,400 students in control schools. Random sampling within schools will be stratified by grade to ensure representation across standards. This cluster-randomized design minimizes spillovers across treatment and control units while providing sufficient statistical power to detect meaningful program effects.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Indian Institute of Management Calcutta
IRB Approval Date
2025-10-16
IRB Approval Number
3954/EXT-RP/2025-2026
Analysis Plan