Career Mentoring for Secondary Students in France (Actenses)

Last registered on March 14, 2017

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Career Mentoring for Secondary Students in France (Actenses)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001917
Initial registration date
March 14, 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
March 14, 2017, 1:03 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Paris School of Economics

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Sorbonne University Paris 3/ IHEAL
PI Affiliation
Paris School of Economics

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2008-01-01
End date
2013-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This report details the short and medium-term effects of Actenses, a program which aims to help French high school students learn about the job market and plan their careers by providing mentors from the professional world. This was done using a randomized controlled trial which provided mentors to certain students, whose progress was then monitored.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Behaghel, Luc, Vera Chiodi and Marc Gurgand. 2017. "Career Mentoring for Secondary Students in France (Actenses)." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1917-1.0
Former Citation
Behaghel, Luc, Vera Chiodi and Marc Gurgand. 2017. "Career Mentoring for Secondary Students in France (Actenses)." AEA RCT Registry. March 14. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1917/history/14972
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2008-01-01
Intervention End Date
2013-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Effect of treatment at the end of grade level "seconde"

(i) Desired program after graduation

(ii) Academic ambition

(iii) Professional project

(iv) Familiarity with course of study and chosen profession

(v) Motivation and self-esteem

(vi) Steps taken as planned

(vii) Desired course of study

(viii) Educational outcomes and absences


2. Effect of treatment at the end of grade level "premiere"

(i) Desired program after graduation

(ii) Academic ambition

(iii) Professional project

(iv) Familiarity with course of study and chosen profession

(v) Motivation and self-esteem

(vi) Steps taken as planned

(vii) Desired course of study

(viii) Educational outcomes and absences
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In France, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds exhibit consistently lower levels of educational achievement and career achievement. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that youths from these backgrounds lack access to the information and advice from parents and community members which makes such success possible. Many countries facing similar problems have considered career mentorship programs as a potential solution. Though such programs exist in France, they have not yet been studied in depth. This study evaluates the effects of Actenses, a program which provides French youths primarily from disadvantaged backgrounds with mentors from the professional world to help them learn about the job market and plan their careers.

A total of 22 schools participated in this study. Within each school, four classes were selected, of which three were assigned to the treatment group and one was left as a control. All the students in the treatment classes were assigned a mentor, while the students in the control classes were not. Administrative data and surveys were used to acquire background information on the students being mentored and eventually to measure the effects of the mentorship program.

The effects of the program were neither strong nor easy to interpret, and many effects were on the edge of statistical significance. The program seemed to gently make students either question their previous plans or come up with goals for the first time.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Done on computer
Randomization Unit
Randomization occurred at the class level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
88 classes
Sample size: planned number of observations
2500 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
3/4 classes treatment

1/4 classes control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
J-PAL Europe IRB
IRB Approval Date
2009-02-01
IRB Approval Number
2009-002

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2013, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2013, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
(no abstract, but summary included at beginning of paper)
Citation
Luc Behaghel, Vera Chiodi, Marc Gurgand, "Evaluation de l’impact du programme de parrainage d’aide `a l’orientation de l’association Actenses"

Reports & Other Materials