Improving job matching for Zambia’s youth • Programs that promote working while studying should provide additional support such as career guidance, pre-placement training and conditional fnancial support to encourage job matching. • Students who fnd work related to their area of study beneft from better job matching after graduation – Work in unrelated felds may be detrimental to education without improving job matching prospects Key messages No. 207 February 2020 Policy Brief Zambia’s average youth unemploy- ment rate (17.4% in 2017) is much higher than national unemployment rates (12.6%) 1 . Of the youth who are employed, only about 55% have jobs that match their level of education. A signifcant share (45%) of employed youth are either undereducated or overeducated for the positions that they hold 1 . The challenge of the educational mismatch among young people entering the labour market—i.e., where their level of education or qualifcation is more or less than that required for a job—is closely linked to the high rate of youth unemployment. With the gradual increase in college and university graduates, coupled with a low absorption rate in the labour market, youth in Zambia have little choice but to accept jobs for which they are over-qualifed. Zambian youth struggle to fnd suitable work 1 CSO, 2018 2 International Labour Organization: Work4Youth project, 2014 By Chitalu Miriam Chama-Chiliba, Hillary Chilala Hazele, Mwimba Chewe, Kelvin Chileshe, and Abdelkrim Araar Working-while-studying for future job matching Empirical literature suggests that exposing young people to the work environment while they are still studying can help them acquire the necessary skills that can enhance their chances of being better matched for a job. Pre-graduation work experience or “working while studying” has the potential to provide students with a shorter school-to-work transition as they acquire specifc labour market skills, networks, career-goal guidance and aspirations. The analysis To measure educational mismatch, the research team analysed na- tionally-representative cross-sec- tional survey data from the 2014 School to Work Transition Survey (STWTS) 2 for youth aged 15 to 29. The team examined whether there are differences between the subjective (self-reported survey) and empirical (computed based on average education in a given occupation) effects of working while studying, through which they also verifed the robustness of their results. To estimate the causal effect of working while studying on edu- cational mismatch, the research- ers used a range of Extended Ordered Probit regression mod- els, taking into account possible self-selection and sample-selec- tion biases, and controls for youth characteristics. Measures to improve job-matching The Zambian government has imple- mented higher (tertiary) education sector reforms, such as a Work-Based learning Framework developed in 2017 to bridge education and skills mismatch. By focusing on pre-gradu- ation work exposure through appren- ticeships and post-graduation work exposure in internships, the program aims to complement the training youth received in colleges and uni- versities. A team of local PEP researchers sought to investigate the effect of pre-graduation work experience on educational mismatch in Zambia. Photo: Doug Badcock