Impact Assessment Study for CSR Skill Development Project

Aims & Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate and ascertain the impact of skill training provided by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to 2500 youth in 5 states, in 17 locations and in different 8 sectors to make them employable. The study evaluated the impact of the training through the following research questions:

• Have trainees’ incomes increased? What is the impact of training on disposable income of the trainees?
• Has trainees’ access to employment opportunities, likelihood of retention or quality of working conditions improved? Has the employability of the trainee increased?
• Quality of training, what has been the experience in taking the trained vs. untrained people

Methodology: Time frame of the study was 7 weeks and the scope being the 5 states (namely, West Bengal, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Manipur) and 10 locations (across these states) in 8 different sectors. A multi-stage sampling procedure was followed to select the sample representing states, locations, sectors, providers and job roles. The total sample including design effect was 410 out of 2500 trained candidates. Firstly, details of 2,500 trained youth was collected in terms of the type of skill courses, duration of the training, sector of training, place of training (location), ownership type of the institution which provided the training (i.e. government or private) and state.

The evaluation study will aid the training agency to evaluate the usefulness of skill training in terms of intended outcomes of the training and also helped to improve the design of the future programmes.

Recommendations:

• Skill courses useful and helped to get a foothold in the labour market
• Most of the locations fall in mountain/ hill regions and need handholding support in initial stages including financial support
• Greater development of the location will help better employment and opportunities (wage and self) through linkage effect
• Need to identify the interest areas of the youth prior to the implementation of the skill training programme
• The quality of the skill training should be maintained at all stages – mobilization to placement
• Skill Training needs to be linked to local endowment resources
• Adequate hands on application of skills learnt needed on the job site
• Soft skills such as knowledge of English and computer helps in the job placement