Which Pathways Lead to Employment? The Effectiveness of Varying Types of Training Programmes for Unemployed Jobseekers

Jonas Wood , University of Antwerp
Karel Neels , University of Antwerp

Training programmes targeted at unemployed jobseekers are commonly assumed to facilitate the transition to employment, be it by motivating jobseekers, enhancing job search skills, occupation-specific skills, or even through accumulation of work experience and contact with potential employers. Despite a large body of evaluation literature assessing the effectiveness of ALMP training programmes, our understanding of the underlying mechanisms through which training programmes might enhance employment outcomes remains limited. Consequently, this study unpacks training geared towards unemployed jobseekers into four different types depending on the underlying theoretical mechanisms through which they are assumed to stimulate employment. Dynamic propensity score matching and hazard models provide some support for the human capital theory, with positive employment effects among trainees in Occupation-specific Classroom Training focussing on the human capital required for specific occupations, whereas Basic Classroom Training programmes - geared towards enhancing jobseekers motivation and job search behaviour - exhibit no such positive effects. Particularly strong positive effects are found for participation in Non-Contractual Workplace Training, programmes combining human capital acquisition with the opportunity to accumulate social and cultural capital. After controlling for the strong positive selection into Contractual Workplace Trainings – which include a temporary wage subsidy in addition to a temporary employment contract – the moderate short-lived positive effect suggests that employers mostly select participants who would have entered regular employment anyway. The article discusses the theoretical relevance of these findings in terms of how ALMP (un)successfully rely on varying complementary behavioural frameworks of employment, as well as policy implications.

See paper

 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe