# **1 Introduction**

The school-to-work transition is a critical and often challenging period for young people, with youth unemployment rates often far exceeding those of adults. Employers are frequently reluctant to hire recent graduates because the skills acquired at school may not match those demanded by the firm. Surveys of employers from around the world indicate that firms struggle to find workers with appropriate levels of soft skills (Cunningham and Villase ̃nor, 2016). These soft skills are often complementary to technical skills, and have been shown to be predictive of labor market success and productivity (Adhvaryu et al., 2023; Ajayi et al., 2022; Borghans et al., 2008; Campos et al., 2017; Heckman and Kautz, 2012). Despite growing recognition of their importance, there remains relatively limited evidence on how to effectively develop soft-skills (Deming, 2022). Dedicated soft skills training may help bridge the skills gap, allowing prospective employees to acquire the skills that are not developed in school but are highly demanded by employers.

This project seeks to test whether an intensive soft-skills training course for recent tertiary education graduates can effectively improve their soft skills and boost their downstream labor market outcomes. The soft skills training was commissioned by the Rwanda Development Board in response to findings from a survey of Rwandan employers in which they reported that they valued employees with strong communication skills but that these employees were particularly difficult to find.<sup>1</sup> The training was prepared and implemented by professors of the University of Rwanda, the largest education institution in the country, and focused on effective communication and networking, including material on both interpersonal (teamwork, collaboration, trust, empathy, and negotiation) and intrapersonal (self-awareness, personal initiative, and perseverance) skills.<sup>2</sup> The training was delivered through an intensive two-week bootcamp (160 hours in total) in the South of Rwanda.<sup>3</sup> A group of 450 randomly-assigned, eligible recent graduates (50% women) were invited to attend at no cost under the assumption that recent graduates are either liquidity or credit constrained and thus might not be able to afford the cost of the training.<sup>4</sup>

> 1We conducted the survey online in April 2020 with a sample of 30 large employers who typically hire recent graduates. Employers were given a list of 28 skills, following Cunningham and Villase ̃nor (2016), and were asked to rate them based on: 1) how much they value the skill when hiring a new graduate and 2) how difficult the skill is to find when hiring a new graduate. Results indicated that the seven skills local employers valued the most were commitment, honesty, integrity, punctuality, responsibility, communication and technical skills. However, when asked about the skills most difficult to find among those they value, they selected communication and technical skills. While universities and vocational schools target technical skills, there seems to be a clear demand for improved communication skills, which was observed both among public and private firms in our sample.

2See Ajayi et al. (2022) for definitions of each of these interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

> 3The bootcamp took place during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive measures were taken to guarantee in-person activities while mitigating health risks (e.g., COVID-19 tests were conducted on all participants).

> 4Neither vocational nor regular schools focus on soft skills development, and there are few soft-skill training providers in the country. Moreover, financial institutions do not offer loans that cover post-graduate education.

1