Baseline data collection started in March 2011 in each of the training centers. Endline was collected two years after in April 2014 via telephone.
The baseline survey data was collected through a computer-based pre-assessment, which provided data on the 3,018 applicants of the program. The survey lasted 1.5 hours and included applicants' socio-economic and demographic backgrounds, education history and labor market experiences and expectations followed the assessment. This information allows to benchmark labor and non-labor outcomes. The second part of the baseline, is the Implicit Association Tests, an instrument that social psychologist use to measure an individual's cognitive associations between a social group and a stereotypic attribute. A timed test that consisted in sorting tasks and measured the ease of associations between gender and a number of attributes relevant for women's market participation in Nigeria. Moreover, the test also measured the distinction in ITes-BPO sector associations between gender and the concepts of professionalism and unprofessionalism.
The country faced strong political instability that resulted in delays in the implementation of the program for approximately a year. And shortly after the resolution of national crisis over the removal of fuel price subsidies and also after a Boko Haram bombing that killed over 150 people that led to the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew in the program state of Kano, the program was implemented in February 2012. Given the delays in implementation however, to gauge interest in the initial applicants, there was a second baseline survey collected through a link provided when the treatment status was announced with strong response rates.
The endline survey consisted in enumerators contacting the applicants using the contact information provided during the baseline survey. The rate of response was 91 percent with 2,733 applicants willing to take the survey. Mobile-minutes were offered as incentives for the endline survey. Furthermore, the training providers also collected attendance data for all trainees and post-assessment scores for applicants who accepted treatment and took the assessment (1,007 individuals).
