Returns to soft skills training for youth

Last registered on December 19, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Returns to soft skills training for youth

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005548

Initial registration date

March 11, 2020

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 12, 2020, 7:01 PM EDT

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

Last updated

December 19, 2022, 4:33 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Tanzania, United Republic of

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Rachel Cassidy

Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Munshi Sulaiman

PI Affiliation

BRAC International

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Clara Delavallade

PI Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Elijah Kipkech Kipchumba

PI Affiliation

BRAC International

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-05-01

End date

2023-12-31

Keywords

Education, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

Training, soft skills, youth

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

There is growing recognition of the importance of soft skills in improving young people’s labor market outcomes. However, rigorous measurement of specific soft skills in the context of a large-scale field study is often challenging, and hence there is little evidence on the levels of some such skills among vulnerable youth populations, as well as potential gender gaps in such skills. Moreover, there is little causal evidence as to which skills or sets of skills are most malleable in late adolescence and early adulthood, and which may have the highest labor-market returns for such populations. This study will deploy novel measures of key soft skills with a sample of young male and female adults in urban and peri-urban Tanzania. Building on recent advances in psychology and behavioral economics, as well as BRAC’s Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) curriculum, we will create training modules focusing on two different sets of soft skills. We will use an individual-level randomized controlled trial to estimate the causal impacts of these trainings on young men and women's skills and on their labor market outcomes.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Cassidy, Rachel et al. 2022. "Returns to soft skills training for youth ." AEA RCT Registry. December 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5548-2.2

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2021-09-01

Intervention End Date

2022-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Socio-emotional skills, employment, earnings

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This study will consist of an individual-level randomized controlled trial among 4800 youth from 40 communities spread over three regions of Tanzania: Dodoma, Dar es Salam and Iringa. Our community sampling frame will consist of clusters which have: at least 120 eligible young men and 120 eligible young women within a one-mile radius; community leaders who confirm interest in the program; and an existing venue suitable for hosting a training. We will randomly select 40 communities from the list of communities meeting these criteria. Within selected communities, we will conduct a listing to create an individual sampling frame of all eligible young men and women, defined as being: primarily aged 18-24, with possible inclusion of 16-17-year-olds and 25-26-year-olds if needed to attain the desired sample size; not in full time education or attending boarding school, and not in full time formal salaried employment. From this sampling frame, we will use a computer to draw a random sample of 60 adolescent girls and 60 adolescent boys per community, and to randomly allocate them to one of three treatment arms – receiving training on the first set of skills, receiving training on the second set of skills, receiving training on both sets of skills – or the control arm (no training).

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomisation done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

4800 individuals (2400 young women, 2400 young men)

Sample size: planned number of observations

4800 individuals (2400 young women, 2400 young men)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1200 individuals control (of which 600 male, 600 female); 1200 individuals T1 (of which 600 male, 600 female); 1200 individuals T2 (of which 600 male, 600 female); 1200 individuals T1+T2 (of which 600 male, 600 female)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials