Can Information About Jobs Improve the Effectiveness of Vocational Training? Experimental Evidence from India

Abstract

We use a randomized experiment to evaluate the impact of providing richer information about prospective jobs to vocational trainees on their employment outcomes. The setting of the study is the vocational training program DDU-GKY in India. We find that including in the training two information sessions about placement opportunities make trainees 18% more likely to stay in the jobs in which they are placed. We provide suggestive evidence that the effect is driven by improved selection into training: as a result of the intervention, trainees that are over-optimistic about placement jobs are more likely to drop out before placement.

Keywords: skills, vocational training, on-the-job-training, dropout, rural development, job placement

JEL Classification: J24, J61, M53