Returns to soft skills training for youth

Last registered on August 12, 2026
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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
August 12, 2026, 10:52 AM EDT

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
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Munshi Sulaiman
PI Affiliation
BRAC International
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PI Name
Clara Delavallade
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Elijah Kipkech Kipchumba
PI Affiliation
BRAC International
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
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. 2026. "Returns to soft skills training for youth ." AEA RCT Registry. August 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5548-3.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
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

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?
No

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

Documents

Document Name
Training manual awareness
Document Type
other
Document Description
File
Training manual awareness

MD5: c0e969fa7dcee3c96eeffe1667dba5b2

SHA1: 1e30984fa73b4362850e9726d45d9661fc7916cb

Uploaded At: February 01, 2022

Document Name
Training manual management
Document Type
other
Document Description
File
Training manual management

MD5: 6f17c122bcbdccc004cec3445c04e489

SHA1: 2d4b427f0858128b5fb7c447f621e8f5b748d591

Uploaded At: February 01, 2022

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH)
IRB Approval Date
2019-07-01
IRB Approval Number
2019-381-NA-2019-270
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

March2021_TanzaniaSoftSkills_PAP_FINAL.pdf

MD5: acec324492e4a7390e0eb9ff228b9f39

SHA1: 3ca2901c9dd69a80936b861d251e55fedf2651f1

Uploaded At: March 31, 2022

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials