Designing Evaluation of Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland

This chapter outlines how the impacts of a major vocational training programme can be evaluated with the use of linked administrative and survey data. To do so, it presents a strategy for future evaluations of Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland. Drawing on lessons from the existing literature, it describes the options and preferred choices for examined outcomes, data sources and evaluation approaches. It argues that future evaluations should focus mainly on individual employment and wages, and on firm productivity outcomes; they should rely mainly on existing administrative data and use two distinct control groups, consisting of non-participants and non-completers. The chapter also illustrates how the evaluator can use narrower control groups, matching techniques, regression analysis and changes over time to better identify causal effects.