1. Shubha Chakravarty and Mattias Lundberg
Labor Markets Core Course
World Bank
May 2013
Design and Implementation of
Skills Training Programs:
A Case Study of the Adolescent
Girls Initiative

2. • 6 Key Challenges
• Background on the AGI
• Answering the Challenges
• Summary
• Additional advice
• Where to Get Help
Outline of Presentation
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3. 1. Whom to target: “Vulnerability” vs. “Employability”
2. What to teach: Demand-driven vs. market-driven
3. What to teach: Technical skills vs. full package of skills
4. How to incentivize trainees: Complementary services
5. How to incentivize training providers: Performance-
based contracts
6. How to build client ownership: Institutional
arrangements
6 Key Design Challenges
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4. • Objective: Economic empowerment for young women (aged 16-
24) in 8 countries worldwide
• Design Features:
– Private sector/NGO training providers competitively selected to provide
market-relevant skills training
– Vocational Skills for wage or self employment
– Life skills training to address girls’ vulnerabilities
– Financial literacy and business development
– Microfinance (South Sudan)
– Stipend (Rwanda, Afghanistan)
– Job placement through performance-based contracts (Liberia, Nepal)
• Today, we’ll focus on Liberia and Nepal (with some anecdotes
from non-AGI programs in Uganda and Kenya)
Background on the AGI

5. • Implemented by Ministry of Gender
• Design Features:
– 4 NGO service providers competitively selected (plus 4 more sub-
contracted)
– Trainees choose between job skills and business development
– Wide variety of training areas: painting, hotel/ restaurant work, driving,
etc.
– Coverage: 2500 girls in Greater Monrovia
– Training conducted in small groups
– Six month follow-up period for job placement
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/worldbank#p/c/35/9rP4-b1FN_g
AGI in Liberia (EPAG)

6. • Implemented by Helvetas (International NGO, with Govt.)
• Design Features:
– Builds upon an existing model for private sector skills training (supported
by DfID and SDC)
– Focus on wage employment
– Training providers conduct rapid market assessments (RMAs) to identify
traditional and non-traditional trades
– Mixed classrooms with males and older students (up to age 40)
– Wide geographic coverage: 4000 girls in 50 districts of country
• Video: http://www.youtube.com/worldbank#p/c/1/ljKBQob27sI
AGI in Nepal (AGEI)

7. • Tradeoff between “Vulnerability” vs. “Employability”
• Option 1: Define clearly whom you want to train, define realistic
targets, and adjust as needed (Liberia)
– Entrepreneurship Target: 85%. Job Skills Target: 55%
– Original eligibility criteria loosened, literacy feeder component added.
• Option 2: Let the market decide (Nepal)
– Set clearly defined (and verifiable) vulnerability criteria
– Pay a per-student incentive for members of vulnerable groups
– Adjust the criteria as needed (e.g., some groups may not require
incentives over time)
• Don’t assume the “vulnerable” will come to you
– Specialized communications and outreach strategies (Liberia)
– Leverage civil society groups to reach out to specific groups (Nepal)
 Bottom line: Acknowledge the tradeoff by either adjusting targets
or budgeting more for vulnerable groups
Challenge 1: Whom to target
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8. • Tradeoff between demand-driven vs. market-driven trades
• Various challenges with venturing into new trades:
– Availability of curricula, trainers, skills certification
– Higher risk of dropouts
– For women: stigma associated with male-dominated trades may constrain
their employment after the training
• Tradeoff between entrepreneurship and wage employment
• Various approaches to facilitating an informed choice among
trainees:
– Informal counseling (Liberia)
– Orientation session before application (Kenya)
– Advertisements (e.g., radio spots) before application (Nepal)
– Induction period after application (Rwanda)
 Bottom Line: Educate (yourself and) your beneficiaries before they
choose a trade. Equip all trainees with basic entrepreneurship skills.
Challenge 2: What to teach
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9. • Trainees have various learning needs: tradeoff between how many
to address
• Emerging evidence that comprehensive skills packages have good
results:
– One (or more) technical skills (multi-skilling)
– Entrepreneurship and financial literacy
– Life skills: Customer service, interview skills, negotiation, communication,
stress management, worker rights
• Employers often say that the “other stuff” matters more than the
technical skills themselves
• Various challenges with delivering skills packages:
– Might need to engage various training providers
– Additional complexity and cost reduces potential for scale-up
 Bottom Line: In most contexts, purely technical skills training is not
enough. Experiment with different packages to learn what’s
absolutely necessary.
Challenge 3: What to teach
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10. • Although rarely reported, high dropout rates plague many skills
training programs
• Trainees have many constraints to participation: Tradeoff between
how many to address
• Related tradeoff between facilitating participation and attracting
less motivated students
• Types of incentives:
– Stipends: None, transport only, transport plus subsistence
– Other monetary incentives: completion bonus, microfinance loans, start-
up kits
– Non-monetary incentives: child care, one-on-one mentoring,
interventions, prizes for attendance
• Pre-program assessments help, but “revealed preferences” are
more telling
 Bottom line: Figure out which constraints are binding, and focus on
addressing those
Challenge 4: Incentivizing Trainees
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11. • Tradeoff between investing in monitoring and training more
students
• Require a market assessment
– Provide training/ guidance on how to conduct (Nepal)
• Frequent and unannounced quality control visits
– Can be done cheaply using part-time monitors (Liberia)
– Develop checklist in conjunction with training providers
– Follow-up doggedly with any issues discovered until resolution
• Use performance-based contracts:
– Reserve a portion of the contract amount to be paid upon verification of
employment of graduates
– In Liberia: “Withheld Incentive Payment”
– In Nepal: “Output-based financing”
 Bottom line: too many programs under-invest in quality control and
job placement.
Challenge 5: Incentivizing training providers
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12. • Tradeoff between govt. and NGO/private sector delivery of skills training
• If you choose non-govt. service delivery, there are multiple levels of
involvement with govt.:
– Advisory and oversight role
– Implementation role: hiring and management of training providers
– Quality control: monitoring and certification of training providers
– Curriculum standardization
– Skills Certification
– Policy/ Advocacy role (e.g., Adolescent Girls Unit)
• If you choose govt. service delivery, there are many potential ways to
collaborate with civil society/ private sector:
– Advisory and oversight role
– Capacity building of public TEVT agencies
– Third party monitoring
– Beneficiary outreach and selection
 Bottom line: Choose the highest quality option for training provision, but
don’t wait until the end of Phase I to put government in the driver’s seat.
Challenge 6: Building Client Ownership
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13.  Acknowledge the tradeoff between vulnerability and
employability by either adjusting targets or budgeting more
for vulnerable groups.
 Educate your beneficiaries before they choose a trade. Equip
all trainees with basic entrepreneurship skills.
 Experiment with different packages of skills to learn what’s
absolutely necessary.
 Find out which constraints are binding when incentivizing
trainee participation.
 Invest in quality control and use performance-based contracts
to maximize post-training employment.
 Even if they don’t deliver the training, government ownership
needs to built from the beginning.
Summary
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14. • Do an impact evaluation during Phase 1 (please!)
– Advocate for expansion (or not)
– Know which components are essential
– Compare your program to other interventions
– Learn which beneficiaries are succeeding and which need more help
• Do include trainees in your monitoring efforts
– Participant feedback via mobile phones or in-person
– Participants can collect data and do data entry
– Graduates can help recruit/ mentor the next batch of trainees
– Participants are powerful advocates for expansion/ scale-up
Additional Friendly Advice
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15. • WB’s Youth Employment Inventory (www.youth-employment-inventory.org)
– Global repository of youth employment programs (WB and non-WB)
• AGI “Learning from Practice” series
– Tips on designing skills training programs based on lessons learned from the implementation
of AGI pilots
• Hempel, Fiala 2012. “Measuring Success of Youth Livelihood Interventions: A
practical guide to monitoring and evaluation”. World Bank and IYF.
• UNESCO 2012 report: “Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work”
• Ibarraran Shady 2009: “Evaluating the impact of job training programs in Latin
America: Evidence from IDB funded operations”
• ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth/ Women (annual publications)
• International Youth Foundation (IYF)
• Global Partnership on Youth Employment (GPYE)– ILO, WB, IYF
• Youth Employment Network (ILO, WB)
• Making Cents International (makingcents.com)
– Annual conference (good place to meet NGOs working on youth employment), plus various
off-the-shelf curricula
Where to Get Help
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