By Diego Santa Maria

school setting in uganda
A school setting in Iganga, Uganda.

How can mentorship improve short-term and long-term job market outcomes for young people in Uganda?


Young job seekers in low income settings face significant barriers to securing employment. CID Faculty Affiliate Livia Alfonsi and co-authors Mary Namubiru and Sara Spaziani evaluated a mentorship program in Uganda, Meet Your Future (MYF), designed to correct overly optimistic beliefs without leading to discouragement. 

To measure the program’s impact on labor market outcomes, the study uses a randomized controlled trial with over 1,100 vocational students in Uganda, pairing them with successful graduates to guide their school-to-work transition.

Key Findings:

  • Correcting over-optimism: MYF mentors helped students revise overly optimistic wage expectations, which were on average 86% higher than actual earnings. Students lowered their reservation wages by 32%, enabling them to accept job offers sooner and avoid long spells of unemployment.
  • Faster job acquisition: Mentored students were 25% less likely to reject job offers and 27% more likely to be employed three months after graduation. They obtained jobs faster and were 15% more likely to work in sectors aligned with their vocational training.
  • Career progression: Within a year, mentored students earned 18% more than their non-mentored peers, advancing faster in their careers through promotions and longer job retention.
  • Mechanisms: Using recordings of mentor-student conversations and random mentor assignments, the study finds that the most impactful mentors provided information on entry-level conditions and offered encouragement, rather than referrals or job search capital.

Policy Impact and Relevance:

Youth unemployment in Africa is a significant and complex issue, affecting millions of young people across the continent. It poses both social and economic challenges, with implications for growth, stability, and development. 

The analysis of MYF's mentorship program highlights the positive impact of mentorship on youth employment in Uganda, demonstrating that young vocational school graduates who received guidance from successful peers were not only more likely to secure jobs within three months of graduating, but also experienced higher earnings a year later. The mentorship focus on correcting misconceptions while providing optimism for future prospects was shown to be key to preventing disillusionment, labor market exit, and the underuse of skilled talent.

CID Faculty Affiliate Author

livia alfonsi headshot

Livia Alfonsi

Livia Alfonsi is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and development economist whose research focuses on labor market frictions and determinants of labor market participation in low-income settings, with a particular emphasis on barriers to youth employment and female labor market participation. 

Curious to dive deeper into the findings? For a comprehensive analysis and detailed insights, read the full research paper.
Image Credits

Zach Wear

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