Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan

Income growth in rural areas is a considerable challenge to further poverty reduction and economic development. Using a survey of rural Bhutanese households, we investigate the impacts of a vocational skills training programme that was intended to diversify incomes outside agriculture. We find that...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Chun, Natalie, Watanabe, Makiko
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2013
Subjects:	skill diversification rural sector training
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13354

id	okr-10986-13354
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-133542021-04-23T14:03:08Z Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan Chun, Natalie Watanabe, Makiko skill diversification rural sector training Income growth in rural areas is a considerable challenge to further poverty reduction and economic development. Using a survey of rural Bhutanese households, we investigate the impacts of a vocational skills training programme that was intended to diversify incomes outside agriculture. We find that the programme had limited positive impacts along various economic and psychosocial dimensions, but that it diversified household incomes into the basic construction skill areas that it provided. Notably, the programme did raise incomes for trainees in non-competitive labour markets where trainees accounted for only a small percentage of the overall population. The results and findings from qualitative assessments suggest that: a greater emphasis on creating a mechanism to connect the training programme with income-generating opportunities via job placement services, entrepreneurship or mentoring services is needed – especially in competitive labour markets where there are too many trainees in relation to the population; refining the curriculum and extending the training time to allow trainees to develop their skills may be important; and encouraging greater equality in the skill development process may require providing more female-friendly training that has flexibility in training time and venues and focuses on other skill areas. 2013-05-09T19:43:48Z 2013-05-09T19:43:48Z 2012-05-04 Journal Article Journal of Development Effectiveness 1943-9342 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13354 en_US Journal of Development Effectiveness;4(2) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank Taylor and Francis Journal Article Bhutan
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	skill diversification rural sector training
spellingShingle	skill diversification rural sector training Chun, Natalie Watanabe, Makiko Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
geographic_facet	Bhutan
relation	Journal of Development Effectiveness;4(2)
description	Income growth in rural areas is a considerable challenge to further poverty reduction and economic development. Using a survey of rural Bhutanese households, we investigate the impacts of a vocational skills training programme that was intended to diversify incomes outside agriculture. We find that the programme had limited positive impacts along various economic and psychosocial dimensions, but that it diversified household incomes into the basic construction skill areas that it provided. Notably, the programme did raise incomes for trainees in non-competitive labour markets where trainees accounted for only a small percentage of the overall population. The results and findings from qualitative assessments suggest that: a greater emphasis on creating a mechanism to connect the training programme with income-generating opportunities via job placement services, entrepreneurship or mentoring services is needed – especially in competitive labour markets where there are too many trainees in relation to the population; refining the curriculum and extending the training time to allow trainees to develop their skills may be important; and encouraging greater equality in the skill development process may require providing more female-friendly training that has flexibility in training time and venues and focuses on other skill areas.
format	Journal Article
author	Chun, Natalie Watanabe, Makiko
author_facet	Chun, Natalie Watanabe, Makiko
author_sort	Chun, Natalie
title	Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
title_short	Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
title_full	Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
title_fullStr	Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
title_full_unstemmed	Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan
title_sort	can skill diversification improve welfare in rural areas? evidence from bhutan
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13354
_version_	1764423282224791552

Can Skill Diversification Improve Welfare in Rural Areas? Evidence from Bhutan

Similar Items