Can Career Counselling and Labour Market Information Increase TVET Uptake and Change Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions toward TVET? Experimental Evidence from Secondary Schools in Bangladesh

Last registered on August 31, 2026

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0019507

Initial registration date

August 27, 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

August 31, 2026, 8:33 AM EDT

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

Mohammad Riaz Uddin

Affiliation

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Kazi Iqbal

PI Affiliation

Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)

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Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2026-03-01

End date

2027-12-31

Keywords

Behavior, Education, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

TVET participation remains very low in Bangladesh, accounting for only 2.8% of secondary-level enrolment in 2023 (BANBEIS, 2024). Alongside supply-side constraints, limited information, misinformation, and negative perceptions and stigma may discourage students from choosing vocational education. This study will use a school-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine whether career counselling and labour-market information provided to students and parents can increase vocational stream uptake and improve knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions toward TVET. The intervention will provide information on TVET pathways, employment and earnings prospects, career opportunities, and available financial support. The study will provide causal evidence on whether a low-cost, scalable information intervention can address demand-side barriers to TVET participation. The findings may inform policies aimed at reducing skills mismatch and youth unemployment and improving labour-market productivity in Bangladesh.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Iqbal, Kazi and Mohammad Riaz Uddin. 2026. "Can Career Counselling and Labour Market Information Increase TVET Uptake and Change Knowledge, Attitudes, and Perceptions toward TVET? Experimental Evidence from Secondary Schools in Bangladesh." AEA RCT Registry. August 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19507-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention consists of a school-based career counselling and labour-market information campaign designed to improve students’ and parents’ knowledge and understanding of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The intervention will provide accessible, evidence-based information on employment opportunities and labour-market demand for TVET graduates, expected earnings, time to employment, available stipends and financial support, and career and further-education pathways. The information will be delivered through career counselling sessions and supporting information materials at treatment schools.

Intervention Start Date

2026-10-10

Intervention End Date

2026-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Vocational stream uptake, knowledge on TVET, Attitudes and perception toward TVET, and preference for TVET.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Vocational Stream Uptake: Measures whether a student ultimately enrols in the vocational/TVET stream in Grade 9. It will be measured as a binary indicator equal to 1 if the student enrols in the vocational stream and 0 otherwise.

Knowledge of TVET: Measures students’ awareness and understanding of vocational education, including available programmes, admission requirements, stipends and financial support, career pathways, employment prospects, and expected earnings. Responses to relevant knowledge questions may be combined to construct a composite TVET knowledge measure.

Attitudes and Perceptions toward TVET: Measures respondents’ views about vocational education, including its perceived quality, social status and prestige, career prospects, and perceptions of students who choose the vocational stream. Relevant survey items will be combined to capture the extent of positive or negative attitudes and perceptions toward TVET.

Preference for TVET: Measures students’ willingness or intention to choose vocational education as an educational pathway. This may include their stated preference for the vocational stream, interest in enrolling in TVET, and likelihood of considering TVET when making their Grade 9 stream choice.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The study will employ a cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT), with schools serving as the unit of randomization. Schools will be randomly assigned to either the treatment group, which will receive the career counselling and labour-market information intervention, or the control group, which will not receive the intervention during the study period. Randomization at the school level is appropriate because the intervention is delivered through school-based activities and information materials, making student-level randomization vulnerable to contamination and spillovers among students within the same school. School-level assignment also closely reflects how the intervention could be implemented at scale. Outcomes will be compared between students in treatment and control schools following the intervention, with the primary estimand being the Intent-to-Treat (ITT) effect of assignment to the intervention.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization will be done by a computer.

Randomization Unit

School

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes