Speaker
Description
Improved workforce development programs and education in general are of high priority for national governments and development cooperation to tackle the rising youth underemployment in many Sub-Saharan African countries coupled with continued population growth and increasing urbanization rates. Nevertheless, rigorous evidence of their effectiveness remains scarce and finds mixed results. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of a best-case scenario training program in Ghana. The program improved participants’ employment probability and certain aspects of employment quality and livelihoods, but the impact strongly depends on the program design and implementation. Expectation surveys reveal that stakeholders are overly optimistic about program effectiveness and update their beliefs only to a limited extent when presented with evaluation results.
