The Skill Development for Employability Project has been launched in 2015 by the government of the Republic of Congo, and jointly financed with the World bank. The project provides vocational training to young men and women in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire. The World Bank Africa Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) is conducting an impact evaluation of one of its sub-component, in which beneficiaries enroll in a six-month technical training course, followed by a three-month internship, and a job search support program.
To reach its targets, the project is being rolled out over several years, training successively different cohorts of applicants. This dataset was generated through the baseline survey of the first cohort participating in this subcomponent. In the future, it will be expanded to include the subsequent cohorts of participants. Applicants must be between 17 and 30-year-old, and have the possibility to choose between a number of trades including mechanics/auto-mechanics, electricity, welding, textile, hospitality, carpentry, cooking. Following their internship, they receive support from the program to launch their job search or independent activity.
The program’s main objectives is to increase participants' level of employment, by strengthening their technical and managerial skills. Moreover, the project is designed to support young women who wish to cross over to non-traditional sectors, which are typically dominated by men, but are more profitable. In other words, the program seeks to find solutions to address gender segregation in the labor market. The project is providing a daily transportation fees of 1500 CFA to young men and 2000 CFA to young women. A higher amount was provided to women, notably to encourage young mothers to participate to the program. Through these incentives, the project hopes to enroll about 50% women among the beneficiaries.