Factors Contributing Towards Women Employability: An Impact Assessment of a Women Skill Development Training Program

Abstract

It is an impact assessment study of a women skill development training program namely District Industrial Homes in Punjab. A quasi experimental (ex post facto) research design has been applied to develop a counterfactual relationship between the outcomes of this program and the demographic and personal characteristics of the women trainees that have get training from the program within time period of 2016 to 2019. The analysis has observed that computer application and stitching/ cutting are most popular trades among women. Further, it has been observed as the time period since the women has gotten training increased the visibility of trained women in market is decreased. The majority of the women were unmarried, of age 15 to 25 years and majority of them have education level intermediate or above. The female work participation was much higher among the women respondents, however, majority of them were unemployed and had no utilization of their skills in daily life business. The data shows that all the unemployed women were unmarried and all the entrepreneur women were either divorced or widow. Another interesting fact have been revealed from the bivariate analysis that all the women that were unemployed have education metric or below metric and all the women that have any employment status have intermediate or above education level. The women employment status has been found more in families with large family size comparatively and all the women that did not practice the veil were unemployed. The female work participation and women employment status have been observed relatively high in low income families. The multinomial regression analysis have established that education level, mother’s education level, family size and own family house contribute positively and age dependency ratio, female work participation, veil and family employment (total) has negative impact on women employment status.