Impact of Digital Training on Earnings: Evidence from Vulnerable Youth in Punjab’s IT Ecosystem

Abstract

This research examines the impact of digital trainings on the extent to which incomes of Punjab Youth gets affected by undertaking such trainings. The background of the study is stemming from a sub theme of PIDE’s 38th Annual general Meeting and Conference, which embraced the effectiveness of digital trainings which are extended form the platform of PSDF (Punjab Skills Development Fund). The vulnerable youth are taken as sample participants to validate that whether enduring through such trainings, are they actually able to enhance their incomes and earnings or not? A Quantitative approach is used where the sample is divided into two groups; Digitally trained (Treatment group) and digitally untrained group (Control Group). The results derived do substantiate that digitally trained youth are exposed to better incomes. However, barriers to employment and accessing the trainings modules do impact incomes in a negative way. The study is crucial for policy makers who are designing such training programs to actually calculate and evaluate that which industry needs attention in tapping vulnerable youth who can equip and benefit themselves from such trainings and workshops. However, it is important to note that the story does not end here, but post training alignment in the form of job placements, entrepreneurial assistance and unequal job opportunities for women can pose a serious problem to this hypothesis testing.