Development Dialogues: Are vocational training programs effective?

Voices in Development: A Podcast from Yale's Economic Growth Center

Vocational training programs are designed to boost employment in low- and middle-income countries — but often they fall short. In the fourth in our series of Development Dialogues, we examine the real impact of vocational training programs in low- and middle-income countries. Our guests take on pressing questions around evidence, expectations, market realities, and coordination challenges in designing skills-based interventions for employment:

• Oriana Bandiera is the Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where she also directs the Hub for Equal Representation. Her research explores how economic policies and institutions shape labor markets and development outcomes. Bandiera delivered the 34th Simon Kuznets Memorial Lecture on the topic of “Development and the Organization of Labor,” hosted by EGC.
• Stefano Caria is a Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. He uses experimental methods to investigate how to make labor markets work better for the poor. Caria was also senior editor for a VoxDevLit on Barriers to Search and Hiring in Urban Labour Markets.
• Munshi Sulaiman is the Director of Research at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development and a Professor in the Master of Development Studies program at BRAC University. He brings a unique lens from decades of applied work in organizations like BRAC and Save the Children, focusing on labor markets, poverty, and the practical realities of designing and scaling programs.

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