The body of evidence from impact evaluations of training programs in developing countries is growing but still sparse. While rigorous evidence in the United States and European countries has shown that job training programs have had little effect in terms of increasing employment rates (Betcherman et al, 2007 and Card et al, 2011), the few existing impact evaluation studies in low‐ and middle‐income countries have found that such programs have had a mixed impact on employment and earnings overall.

Evidence shows that the success of vocational and technical training programs is closely related to which skills they teach, how well they serve the local labor demand (demand‐driven design), and how well they are implemented. Combining classroom‐based technical and life skills training with on‐the‐job training such as internships or apprenticeships proved to be more effective than providing classroom‐based vocational training alone. Strong collaboration between the public and private sectors, both in the selection of the training contents and in the provision of workplace internships, seems to have been a critical factor in the success in the _Jovenes_ programs. Supplementing the training with personalized counseling and customized job search assistance is also associated with successful outcomes (Honorati and McArdle 2013, Almeida et al. 2012).

This type of “integrated” training programs for youths has been implemented in several countries in Latin America (the _Jovenes_ programs) and has proved to be effective in increasing the employability of the participants (Ibarraran and Rosas Shady, 2009 and Betcherman et al, 2004 and 2007). For example, evaluations of the Joventud y Empleo program in the Dominican Republic have shown that it has had almost no impact on overall employment but a positive—though insignificant—impact on individuals’ earnings, mainly driven by highly educated workers (Card et al, 2011). The impact evaluation of the 2008‐9 cohort of participants of the _Joventud y Empleo_ program in Dominican Republic (Ibarraran et al, 2014) found a 17% increase in the formality of jobs for men<sup>3</sup> and a 7% positive impact on monthly earnings in the short run (18 to 24 months after graduation) and no impact on overall employment. Consistently with the short term findings, the overall average impacts on employment and earnings of the same 2008‐9 cohort of participants remain close to zero in size and insignificant in the long‐run (about 4 years after graduation), while the positive impacts of the program on the formality of employment for men (measured by having employer provided health insurance) persisted in the long term (Ibarraran et al, 2015).

In Colombia, the impacts of the vocational training and internships provided by the _Jovenes en Accion_ were found to be positive on both earnings and employment, especially for women (Attanasio et al, 2011). The study estimated the returns to have been on the order of a 23 to 33 percent increase in formal wages for participants compared to those of the control group. Young female participants had a 7 percent higher probability of having a paid job, three more hours of work per week, and 20 percent higher earnings than the females in the control group. In addition the program was found to complement formal education by encouraging participants to complete secondary school (28% increase in the probability to graduate from secondary school) and enroll in tertiary education (universities and formal vocational colleges) up to four years after receiving the program (Kugler et al., 2015)<sup>4</sup> . In Argentina, researchers found the program had had a significant impact but only on female employment (Aedo and Nuñez, 2004).

> 3 Having a job with health insurance or a written contract are considered as proxies of formality.

> 4 The study was conducted on the same cohort of applicants (2005) and random assignment used in Attasio et al., 2011 paper.

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