Tag
soft_skills
12 findings
Labour & employmentSubstitutability of Soft Skills Training for Baseline Skill DeficitsProductivity gains were significantly higher for workers with low baseline leadership skills (-4.3 percentage point differential for high baseline leaders, p < 0.05) and those without education above primary school (-7.59 percentage point differential for higher education, p < 0.10), proving adult soft skills training acts as a substitute for baseline skill stocks.RCTLabour & employmentCareer Readiness and Professional Soft Skills InstructionPrograms providing integrated career readiness training achieved a 10 percentage point increase in Year 2 employment rates (70% vs. 60%, p < 0.01) and an average weekly work increase of 3.4 hours per week (a 13.9% gain, p < 0.01).RCTLabour & employmentDeepTech Integrated Skill SignalingProgram historical data indicates 50% to 70% of trained participants successfully secure STEM jobs at major tech companies; RCT impact evaluation on earnings and placement is ongoing.RCTLabour & employmentDigital Soft Skills Screening and TrainingEvaluation ongoing with results forthcoming; tracking manager traits, hiring rates, retention, line productivity, and promotion equity across a 3-month module timeline.RCTLabour & employmentFirm Net Return on On-the-Job Soft Skills TrainingTreated workers became 20 percent more productive (10.8 percentage point efficiency gain, p < 0.05) after program completion, while wages increased by only 0.5 percent ($0.50 USD/month). Program costs were $95,000 for 1,087 treated workers, producing a net return to the firm of 73 percent at program completion and 258 percent 8 months post-completion.RCTLabour & employmentOn-the-Job Soft Skills Training for Line WorkersTrained workers demonstrated higher teamwork skills, a 4.7 percentage point (3.5%) increase in promotion probability, and a 16 percentage point (63%) increase in requests for further skill training. Production output rose by 7.4 percentage points (13.5%), yielding a net return on investment of 256% for the firm eight months post-training.RCTDevelopmentGender-Focused Empowerment Business TrainingFour out of five studies demonstrated improved female business outcomes; access to training increased female business sales in Peru 7 to 10 months post-program and raised weekly profits in Kenya by 15.4% (US$2.63) above the control group 3 years after training.RCTLabour & employmentManagerial Soft Skills TrainingManager soft skills training increased team productivity by 5.8% and manager wages by 6.0%. Six months post-training, the financial productivity gains were estimated to be 54 times the program implementation cost.RCTLabour & employmentNon-Cognitive Soft Skills AssessmentTrainees who received objective feedback about their soft skills updated their expectations in line with reality regarding eligible jobs, though they became less willing to accept lower-quality employment.RCTLabour & employmentRelational Trust Deficit in Entry-Level HiringOver two-thirds of surveyed firms cited employee recruitment challenges as a major growth barrier, and 53 percent specifically identified trust and worker behavioral concerns as their primary hiring hurdle.Observational StudyLabour & employmentComplementarity of Soft Skills with Technical Skill AccumulationTrained workers were 15.8 percentage points more likely to request technical skill development training (p < 0.01; control mean = 24.9%), leading to assignment to more complex operations (SAM increased by 0.0384 minutes, p < 0.05), while efficiency gains were largest among machine operators with technical skills (+4.95 percentage points, p < 0.10).RCTLabour & employmentExternal Market Unobservability of General Soft SkillsDespite a 20 percent productivity increase (10.8 percentage point efficiency gain, p < 0.05), post-program long-run worker turnover showed zero differential retention or attrition (0.620 percentage points, p > 0.10) and wage increases remained negligible (0.492 percent, p < 0.10), proving that soft skills are unpriced by external labor markets due to unobservability.RCT