Research has found that helping job-seekers better recognise and communicate their skills to potential employers can improve their job outcomes and help firms hire more qualified candidates. One way to do this is through standardised skills assessment and certification, which can substantially increase job-seekers’ employment and earnings.
Based on an intervention tested by Carranza, Garlick, Orkin and Rankin (2020), this step-by-step guide offers actors within government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), donor agencies, and other institutions a flexible framework for delivering a skills certificate programme to improve earnings for young job-seekers based in a developing country setting.
This handbook offers an overview of this programme developed and tested by researchers, provides a framework on how to approach programme delivery, and includes practical templates to aid implementers.
Click here to download the handbook.
This project was conducted in collaboration with the World Bank Jobs Group and Africa Gender Innovation Lab, and received funding from the National Science Foundation (#1824413), Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (#3024 and #4728), W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) Accelerating Achievement for Africa’s Adolescents Hub.
With thanks to the staff at the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab Africa Office, Duke University, University of Oxford and University of Stellenbosch.
The authors’ views do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank or the governments of the countries they represent.
A picture of young job-seekers participating in an in-person job readiness programme at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a social enterprise focused on reducing youth unemployment.