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This , written by Sudipa Sarkar, Bhaskar Chakravorty and Clare Lyonette, analyses primary survey data from participants of a large-scale skill-training programme that targets rural poor youths in India.

Focusing on two dimensions of individuals' identity: caste and gender, the empirical findings suggest that training participants from the most socially disadvantaged groups - Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) - have significantly lower income aspiration when compared to Other Backward Class (OBC) and Other Caste (OC) participants. Female participants also have significantly lower aspiration than their male counterparts.

The aspiration gaps exist even after controlling for various background characteristics, including participants' pre-training personality traits and soft skills. Individual-level and household-level factors mediate some of the aspiration gaps based on caste and gender.

The paper finds evidence that for SC/ST female participants, the disadvantages on both caste and gender dimensions add up; this is reflected in their lower income aspiration levels, in comparison with all other groups. Thus, the results support the hypothesis of "double jeopardy" instead of "intersectionality" in this context.

This is the first paper of an ongoing project funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

As part of the ESRC Global Challenges Research Funded project ‘Inequalities and skills acquisition in young people’, the IER research team has designed and delivered research methods training to students working towards a Post Graduate Diploma in (Rural) Management at the in Ranchi, India.

The three online workshops took place on 17-18th August with more than 50 students participating.

As a follow-up to the training sessions students are invited to enrol on a 91¸£Àû Moodle, where they can access relevant resources and work on a group assignment to practise what they have learnt in the workshops.

Terence Hogarth (as part of the FGB/EY team investigating skill needs in the automotive sector for the European Commission) moderated the 'Skills and Transformation of the EU Automotive Sector'  held on 27th May 2020.

The webinar was convened on behalf of the European Commission to report on its sector blueprint studies looking at the automotive sector’s skill needs and how they might be met. The webinar will be followed by a high level conference, planned for 23 September 2020, to explore the sector’s skill needs in greater depth.

Unemployment and scarcity of jobs have long been important concerns for policymakers in developing countries (World Bank, 2012). These issues are crucial for India as the country is home to the world’s largest population of young people ready to participate in the labour force (). The current situation caused by the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent countrywide lockdown is certain to affect employment levels in the country, especially as India has a large informal economy, which is currently bearing the major brunt of the lockdown. In this context, targeted Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs), which have been historically used to cushion the economic shock of such global crises in developing countries, can play an important role (; ; ).

A new report examining skill utilisation has been co-authored by Chris Warhurst with the OECD. It includes inputs from Peter Dickinson, also of IER. Focusing on the Leeds City Region in the UK, it reviews the different definitions and measures of skills use in workplaces. It shows why skill use matters for local development policies and outlines a set of measures for Leeds and other regions wanting to support better skill use.

The report can be found.