They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock

This paper discusses a randomized control trial to measure the short-term impacts of a skills intervention among urban youth in Sierra Leone at the onset of the Ebola crisis. The intervention provided (i) technical skills training, plus on-the-job...

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Main Authors:	Rosas, Nina, Acevedo, Maria Cecilia, Zaldivar, Samantha
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT YOUTH SKILLS EBOLA TRAINING SOCIAL PROTECTION GENDER LABOR MARKET YOUTH LABOR YOUTH JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/700321493126707105/They-got-mad-skills-the-effects-of-training-on-youth-employability-and-resilience-to-the-Ebola-shock http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26473

id	okr-10986-26473
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-264732021-06-08T14:42:45Z They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock Rosas, Nina Acevedo, Maria Cecilia Zaldivar, Samantha YOUTH EMPLOYMENT YOUTH SKILLS EBOLA TRAINING SOCIAL PROTECTION GENDER LABOR MARKET YOUTH LABOR YOUTH JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP This paper discusses a randomized control trial to measure the short-term impacts of a skills intervention among urban youth in Sierra Leone at the onset of the Ebola crisis. The intervention provided (i) technical skills training, plus on-the-job training; (ii) business skills training; and (iii) a mix of (i) and (ii). All groups received stipends and literacy and numeracy training. The findings support evidence that combining cash injections and skills training can stimulate employment and entrepreneurship. The program boosted household consumption and investments in housing and assets, thereby building resilience to the Ebola shock. The effects on cognitive and noncognitive skills were positive and heterogeneous. Youth with greater initial ability experienced more positive labor market and entrepreneurship investment impacts. Youth with less initial ability upgraded skills more extensively, although they channeled benefits into more consumption. These findings emphasize the role of basic safety nets and show that noncognitive tests may improve the targeting of skills interventions in fragile contexts. The results also confirm the age-malleability of noncognitive ability and suggest that, in low-ability contexts, the sensitive years for skill investments may reach into early adulthood. 2017-04-26T22:34:22Z 2017-04-26T22:34:22Z 2017-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/700321493126707105/They-got-mad-skills-the-effects-of-training-on-youth-employability-and-resilience-to-the-Ebola-shock http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26473 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8036 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Sierra Leone
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT YOUTH SKILLS EBOLA TRAINING SOCIAL PROTECTION GENDER LABOR MARKET YOUTH LABOR YOUTH JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP
spellingShingle	YOUTH EMPLOYMENT YOUTH SKILLS EBOLA TRAINING SOCIAL PROTECTION GENDER LABOR MARKET YOUTH LABOR YOUTH JOBS ENTREPRENEURSHIP Rosas, Nina Acevedo, Maria Cecilia Zaldivar, Samantha They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
geographic_facet	Africa Sierra Leone
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8036
description	This paper discusses a randomized control trial to measure the short-term impacts of a skills intervention among urban youth in Sierra Leone at the onset of the Ebola crisis. The intervention provided (i) technical skills training, plus on-the-job training; (ii) business skills training; and (iii) a mix of (i) and (ii). All groups received stipends and literacy and numeracy training. The findings support evidence that combining cash injections and skills training can stimulate employment and entrepreneurship. The program boosted household consumption and investments in housing and assets, thereby building resilience to the Ebola shock. The effects on cognitive and noncognitive skills were positive and heterogeneous. Youth with greater initial ability experienced more positive labor market and entrepreneurship investment impacts. Youth with less initial ability upgraded skills more extensively, although they channeled benefits into more consumption. These findings emphasize the role of basic safety nets and show that noncognitive tests may improve the targeting of skills interventions in fragile contexts. The results also confirm the age-malleability of noncognitive ability and suggest that, in low-ability contexts, the sensitive years for skill investments may reach into early adulthood.
format	Working Paper
author	Rosas, Nina Acevedo, Maria Cecilia Zaldivar, Samantha
author_facet	Rosas, Nina Acevedo, Maria Cecilia Zaldivar, Samantha
author_sort	Rosas, Nina
title	They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
title_short	They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
title_full	They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
title_fullStr	They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
title_full_unstemmed	They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock
title_sort	they got mad skills : the effects of training on youth employability and resilience to the ebola shock
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2017
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/700321493126707105/They-got-mad-skills-the-effects-of-training-on-youth-employability-and-resilience-to-the-Ebola-shock http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26473
_version_	1764462071052763136

They Got Mad Skills : The Effects of Training on Youth Employability and Resilience to the Ebola Shock

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