Skills Training Programmes for Unemployed Workers in Developed Economies

ABSTRACT This paper studies the effects of skills training courses on the labour market outcomes of unemployed workers in the north‐east of Italy. We find a positive effect of about 5–6 percentage points in the share of days employed. This effect persists into the fourth year after the beginning of the course and is driven especially by participants younger than 30. From a methodological viewpoint, following Angrist & Rokkanen, we argue that the set‐up is equivalent to a randomised controlled trial, given that the criterion which determines admission to the course is unrelated to the outcomes of interest.