Skill India’s unmet promises: raising expectations for financial assistance in training for informal sector livelihoods

Abstract

Recent research on vocational training in the global South suggests training may have the effect of unrealistically inflating trainee expectations of remunerative employment and upward social mobility. These studies, however, have focused almost exclusively on training for formal sector employment. The present paper, by contrast, explores how formal vocational training initiatives for informal sector livelihoods affect trainee expectations–and the flow-on effects these altered expectations have for their social and economic lives. It presents the findings of a study of agricultural training initiatives in north India. The study found that training–in conjunction with other local actors and i..