1. High Stakes, Low Resources: What Mode(s) Should Youth Employment Training Programs Use to Track Alumni? Evidence From South Africa
- Author
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Ashley Amaya, Eric O. Johnson, Patricia LeBaron, Herschel Lisette Pang Sy Sanders, and Charles Q. Lau
- Subjects
Short Message Service ,020205 medical informatics ,media_common.quotation_subject ,05 social sciences ,Geography, Planning and Development ,Developing country ,02 engineering and technology ,Development ,Workforce development ,Training (civil) ,Survey methodology ,Data quality ,0502 economics and business ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Quality (business) ,Business ,Tracking (education) ,Marketing ,050203 business & management ,media_common - Abstract
Alumni tracking surveys are critical for evaluating and improving youth employment training programmes. However, there is little evidence about how to design these surveys, especially in less developed countries. We conducted short message service and Web surveys of alumni of a South African employment training programme. Short message service surveys returned higher response rates and more representative data than Web surveys, albeit at three times the cost. Combining modes increased data quality but may not be warranted, given the additional cost and complexity. This evidence suggests that training programmes can feasibly collect quality, actionable data on their alumni, even with constrained budgets and staff. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- Published
- 2018