Identification of factors affecting successful outcomes in the DDU-GKY Indian skills programme for unemployed young people

Youth unemployment and underemployment is a pressing economic and political concern in several developing countries. In the Indian context, this is a particular concern because of the potential that India will not realise its demographic dividend (that is, the benefit of having a large population of working-age people within the total population) if a re-balancing of the economy and skills system is not undertaken to address skills gaps.

The most recent Indian Labour Market conference (held in 2015) concluded that a significant number of young people were trapped in involuntary part-time, casual, temporary or seasonal work and lacked access to the kind of personal and professional development activities that could see them move into better and less precarious employment. Since 2003, there has been an increase in training provision by unregulated private sector providers which has contributed to a surplus in some skills and shortages in others, and this is now a critical policy issue. As a result, the Government of India (GoI) is taking a more interventionist role in shaping skills training provision and developing public-private partnerships with training providers and employers.

The GoI has launched a number of skills training programmes for rural youths from poor families. Since 2012, it has spent around USD 868 million on such schemes. However, there is limited evidence on who participates in these programmes and their impact on development of personal and social capabilities. Consequently, it is difficult to assess their ability to link job creation to poverty alleviation and the development of a more inclusive society.

Motivated by the lack of evidence and the importance given to such schemes in India's growth strategy, we propose to examine participation in and the impact of one of India's major and most prominent skills and job creation schemes, that is, the "Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana" (DDU-GKY). Between January 2017 and January 2018, 113,329 young people took part in DDU-GKY training and 69,471 were placed in employment across 398 trades. There were 699 centres delivering training during this period. The programme has a clear mission to engage the most excluded groups and it is proposed that programme participants should include Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (50%), minorities (15%), women (33%) and persons with disabilities (3%).

We aim to identify the social factors that influence the ability of the DDU-GKY programme, and other similar programmes, to achieve social development and inclusion and to assess not only whether such programmes lead to sustained employment and higher earnings, but also whether they promote the development of the personal and social capabilities that are linked to employability skills and full engagement in society.

Our aim is not to evaluate the overall DDU-GKY programme but to identify factors which will support its success, while simultaneously developing a broader definition of 'success', incorporating measures of social inclusion and employability or soft skills gain and the personal efficacy to employ these skills in the workplace and in wider society. The research also aims to establish the reasons why some groups who are eligible for training are particularly unlikely to register to take part in the programme and to compare skills gain amongst these groups with those who have participated in training.

This project will take an innovative local capacity-building approach, and involves the UK research team working in partnership with local academics and training providers in developing quantitative and qualitative instruments. Longitudinal surveys and interviews with programme participants and a control group of eligible non-participants will be used, as well as interviews with training providers and employers in 2 contrasting states, Bihar and Jharkhand.

Who might benefit from this research?
This research will involve key local stakeholders in India. We consider it essential that we involve them at all stages of the research, and our aim is to engage them in a process of knowledge exchange and capacity-building activities, providing a legacy for future research and evaluation of the programme at the local level.

1. The academic community in the local area, particularly staff and postgraduate students at XISS, where our international co-Investigator is based.
2. Training providers delivering DDU-GKY interventions to upskill young people in Bihar and Jharkhand.
3. Employers training and/or employing young people as part of the programme, covering employers with differing commitments to the programme.
4. Policy-makers funding skills development programmes in Bihar and Jharkhand, particularly those with responsibilities matching relevant national ministries, i.e. the Ministry of Rural Development which launched the programme and the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Directorate General of Training.
5. Young participants and non-participants in the programme.

How might they benefit?
1. We will produce a body of knowledge on this ongoing national large-scale training programme for young people. At least two high-quality journal articles will be published, e.g. one international journal and one journal identified by the Co-investigator as more widely read in India. Study findings will be presented at conferences in the UK and India. The team will establish links with relevant Indian research institutes, e.g. the Centre for Skills and Jobs at the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj in Hyderabad (tasked with evaluating the programme) and Regional Vocational Training Institutes.
We will provide capacity-building activities for local academic staff and post-graduate students to enable them to conduct further research in this area by training staff and students at the co-I's institution, XISS, at all stages of the research and will include designing the study, analysing (longitudinal) data, evaluation methods, report writing and dissemination. Training will be provided by IER staff at sessions after the 3 project workshops.
2. Training provider representatives will be invited to take part in the project workshops as they are crucial to the success of the project. They will help to inform the study design, agree on the methodology used, support the data collection process, help draw up recommendations from the study and support the dissemination strategy, tapping into their networks to promote the project website as well as the findings of the study. Our research assistant will train the data collectors and data entry staff, so ensuring consistency and also providing them with ongoing research and dissemination skills.
3. Employers involved in the DDU-GKY programme are also crucial for the success of the project and we will invite relevant representatives of smaller and larger public and private employers to take part in the project workshops.
4. We will also invite representatives from the relevant government departments in Bihar and Jharkhand to take part in the workshops and to be involved in the activities above. We aim to promote the findings of the study as widely as possible within the two Indian states and more widely.
5. Involving young people who will (potentially) benefit from the DDU-GKY programme is a priority and we will invite representatives to take part in the project meetings. We are aware of the likely challenges to participation in the meetings (e.g. for young women from the most disadvantaged groups). Our local coordinators will liaise with these marginalised groups and identify a spokesperson/s on our behalf. Widespread dissemination of the findings among this group will also be a main priority to increase participation in the programme and we will seek advice on the best ways to reach these groups.