Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) career mentoring for secondary school students in Bhutan

Last registered on April 06, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) career mentoring for secondary school students in Bhutan
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008808
Initial registration date
January 18, 2022

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 19, 2022, 12:19 PM EST

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

Last updated
April 06, 2022, 9:12 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Asian Development Bank

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-08-01
End date
2022-02-15
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Bhutan Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor and Human Resources, and Asian Development Bank conduct an experiment to examine the effects of providing career mentoring to students who are about to decide their tertiary education after graduating from secondary school. Our treatment involves four one-to-one meetings between mentors who are TVET students or workers who graduated from TVET and upper secondary school students. These meetings provide students with information about the importance of TVET education, student life, labor market information and job prospects of TVET students, as well as entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hayashi, Ryotaro. 2022. "Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) career mentoring for secondary school students in Bhutan." AEA RCT Registry. April 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8808-1.1
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Mentors meet with students four times to discuss career path and share information about the importance of TVET education, student life, labor market information and job prospects of TVET students, as well as the entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes.
Intervention Start Date
2021-11-01
Intervention End Date
2021-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Actual educational choice after graduating from upper secondary school
Preference on educational choices
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will create a single index of each outcome.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Test score in the upper secondary school graduation exam “Bhutan Higher Secondary Education Certificate” (BHSEC)
Preparation for the graduation exam

[Intermediary outcomes]
Attitude to science and technology
Attitude to TVET
Subjective knowledge on TVET and university education regarding application, admission, curriculum, students' life, tuition and scholarship, graduation rate, and job prospects
Objective knowledge on TVET regarding entry requirements and application process
Subjective Knowledge on TVET, university, and secondary school graduates regarding salary, employment rate of secondary school graduates, university graduates, and TVET graduates
Expected satisfaction on TVET and university education
Beliefs about approval of parents, peers, and society if enrolling in TVET
Beliefs about peers’ preferences on education
Subjective assessment of ability to enroll and complete TVET education
Beliefs about future employment outcomes
Preference on employment
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We will create a single index of each outcome.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our study subjects are grade 12 students from 35 secondary schools in Bhutan. The mentoring program is provided through two-stage randomization. The first-stage randomization is school level: 17 schools are randomly selected as treatment schools; 19 schools as control schools. The second stage is student level: in treatment schools, randomly selected students, referred to as treatment students, are offered the mentoring program. Treatment students are randomly chosen to pair with mentors, who are currently TVET students or domestic/overseas workers who graduated from TVET.

We conduct a census survey of students at the baseline and endline.
Experimental Design Details
The selection of our study subjects, mentors, randomization, and data collection are conducted as follows:

Study Subjects
Our study subjects are all the grade 12 students (equivalent to upper secondary school seniors) who satisfy the following criteria:
(i) The student should go to one of the 35 secondary schools that are in proximity to six TVET institutes: TTI Khuruthang, TTI Samthang, IZC Thimphu, TTI Thimphu, and IZC Trashiyangste. We consider proximity as less than 3-hour drive distance, which is based on Google Map.
(ii) The student should complete the baseline survey.

Mentor recruitment
We recruit about 140 mentors who satisfy the following criteria:
(i) The mentor should be TVET students or domestic/overseas workers who graduated from TVET program in the following institutes: TTI Khuruthang, TTI Samthang, IZC Thimphu, TTI Thimphu, and IZC Trashiyangste
(ii) The mentor should have secured a minimum of 45% in overall academic performance in grade 12.

Randomization
(i) We randomly choose 17 schools from the list of 35 secondary schools, stratified by geographic area, school size (total students), and public/private status.
(ii) From these schools, we randomly choose 700 students (potential mentees). The number of mentees chosen from each school depends on mentor availability in the same geographic area.
(iii) Potential mentees are randomly paired with mentors in the same geographic area. Each mentor has at most five mentees.
Data collection
(i) The baseline survey: We collect the information about students (e.g., demographics and other baseline information including academic performance, whether or not they have taken any TVET courses, preferences and beliefs about tertiary education and future employment, as well as subjective assessment on their knowledge about different aspects of tertiary education) in the online survey. It is a census survey, although it is expected that some students will not take the survey.
(ii) The endline survey: We collect similar information about students in the online survey, with additional questions on knowledge about entry requirements and application process to TVET institutes. It is a census survey, although it is expected that some students will not take the survey.
(iii) The mentor report form: We collect information on the mentoring progress on identifying career issues, understanding the importance of TVET education, understanding the courses/study options, understanding the life of a typical student, understanding the career path of graduates, and the entry requirements and admission process to TVET.
(iv) Administrative data on test score in the lower secondary school graduation exam “Bhutan Higher Secondary Education Certificate” (BHSEC) will be shared by the Ministry of Education in Spring 2022.
(v) We will collect the data about their actual educational choices from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labor and Human Resources in Summer-Fall 2022.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in Stata.
Randomization Unit
school (first stage randomization) and Individual (second stage randomization)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
35 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
4,800 students (grade 12)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
18 schools control (total 2000 students), 17 schools (2800 students) with students chosen to be participating in the mentoring program. In 17 treated schools, 700 students are selected for the treatment, and 2,100 are not.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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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