Technical/Vocational

Inadequacies in Tanzania's education and training systems compromise the quality of workforce skills, giving rise to skill shortages, and constraining the operations and growth of formal sector firms in the country. This study addressed these concerns using data from a unique Enterprise Skills Survey that asked Tanzanian employers about the education, training, and occupational mix of their workforce, the skill gaps in cognitive, noncognitive, and job-specific competencies affecting their operations, and the strategies they are using to overcome these skill gaps.

Overcoming the related challenges of child labor and the lack of decent work opportunities for youth will be critical to Rwanda's progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. The effects of child labor and poor youth employment outcomes are well-documented: both can lead to social vulnerability and societal marginalization, and both can permanently impair productive potential and therefore influence lifetime patterns of employment and pay. The report is divided into ten chapters.

Mozambique is experiencing significant population growth with a growing number of youth (ages 15-34) into the labor market. The surge of the raw number of individuals, particularly young people, opens both challenges and opportunities: challenges, because of the need to create sufficient jobs to employ new entrants; opportunities, because if well managed, the country will benefit from a young, dynamic labor market where innovations and creative activities serve as an engine of growth, driving up per capita income and standards of living. The paper is organized as follows.

This brief summarizes the results of a gender impact evaluation study, entitled Economic impacts of professional training in the informal sector : the case of the labor force training program in Cote d'Ivoire, conducted in 1994 focusing on participants who started in 1999 in Cote d'Ivoire. The study observed the impact of the labor force training program (PAFPA) developed for the informal sector in Cote d'Ivoire on the individual and business level. Overall, the program does not have a significant positive impact on revenue.

This brief summarizes the differences in the effects of vocational training: constraints on women and drop-out behavior in Malawi for the period August 2010-May 2011. The author provides experimental evidence on the effects of vocational and entrepreneurial training for Malawian youth, in an environment where access to schooling and formal sector employment is extremely low.

[Impact Evaluation] This paper provides experimental evidence on the effects of vocational and entrepreneurial training for Malawian youth, in an environment where access to schooling and formal sector employment is extremely low. It tracks a large fraction of program drop-outs -- a common phenomenon in the training evaluation literature -- and examines the determinants and consequences of dropping out and how it mediates the effects of such programs. The analysis finds that women make decisions in a more constrained environment, and their participation is affected by family obligations.

Skills development offers a range of benefits to out-of-school adolescent girls and alleviates a key obstacle to youth employment in developing countries. But do increased skills lead to delays in early marriage and pregnancy? Not always, according to the empirical evidence.

Promoting relevant technical and life skills is one option to empower adolescent girls by increasing their capacity to generate income and therefore by enhancing their bargaining power within the household. This Note presents a situation analysis of the current skills set and employment outcomes of adolescents (aged 15-19 years) in Malawi, with a focus on adolescent girls. The Note draws on several sources of data, including the Malawi Labor Force Survey 2013.

Adolescence is a time of transitions that foster both challenges and opportunities. Indeed, choices made during adolescence not only have immediate consequences but also greatly influence the economic opportunities, health outcomes, and skill sets attained later in life, and yet it is the same period when social norms create pathways largely defined by gender. Poverty and ethnic minority status can further magnify gender discrepancies for youth worldwide, as reductions in household spending on education, health care, and nutrition are often more likely to affect adolescent girls than boys.

[Impact Evaluation] This brief summarizes the updates from the 2014 paper entitled, The impact of an adolescent girls employment program : the EPAG project in Liberia, conducted between between 2010 and 2011 in Liberia. The study presents findings from the impact evaluation of the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (EPAG) project in Liberia.