Subsidized Dual Apprenticeship
RCTReview
Low-skilled youth in developing economies face credit constraints and lack access to transferable vocational skills. Traditional informal apprenticeships suffer from firm commitment failures, leading to sub-optimal investment in general skill training.
Picture this
Think of a dual apprenticeship like a driving school where a student receives a monthly living allowance to practice driving with a commercial driver while taking formal classroom lessons on traffic rules. The allowance prevents the student from dropping out due to daily living expenses, while the structured classroom teaching guarantees learning universal rules recognized by any employer.
What the evidence says
Four years after baseline, assigned youth experienced a 15% increase in total earnings (p = 0.0169), spent 10.83 additional months in training (p < 0.0001), and achieved a 15.1 percentage point higher rate of skill certification compared to the control group mean of 9.5%.
- Who was studied
- N = 1,842 eligible low-skilled youth aged 18–24 and 731 micro and small informal enterprises across 7 urban localities in Côte d'Ivoire.
- How
- Double-sided randomized controlled trial (RCT) with longitudinal baseline, midline (20 months), and endline (4 years) follow-up surveys.
What to do
Combine direct monthly stipends to trainees with formal theoretical instruction and standardized skill certification to overcome capital constraints and firm commitment failures.
From the source
"Four years after the start of the experiment, treated youths perform more complex tasks and their earnings are higher by 15 percent. We conclude that subsidized dual apprenticeships expand access to training, upgrade skills and improve earnings for youths without crowding out traditional apprentices."
Direct_and_Indirect_Effects_of_Subsidized_Dual_Apprenticeships.pdf