Publication: Digital vs in-Person Business Training at Scale: Cautionary Lessons from a Randomized Trial in Ethiopia
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2025-07-10
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2025-07-10
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Digital business training offers flexibility and scalability, but translating these features into tangible benefits for women-led businesses is challenging. Completion rates were much higher for in-person training. While over 75 percent of women started the training in both groups, only 22 percent of app users completed the program, compared to 71 percent of in-person participants. Neither training modality led to measurable improvements in business outcomes. Business survival, revenues, profits, inputs, and practices remained unchanged across both groups. Business knowledge gains were modest and similar for both modalities, even among women who completed the program. The cost advantage of digital training was smaller than expected. Although the average cost per participant was lower for app-based training, the necessity of in-person onboarding to generate initial engagement narrowed the cost differential and raised marginal costs. Standalone training may not be sufficient to improve business performance. Even among women entrepreneurs with growth-oriented intentions, business training alone had no significant effect, suggesting the need for complementary interventions to address other binding constraints. Improving digital training outcomes will require stronger incentives to keep learners engaged. Gamification and tailored support for individuals with low digital literacy may help sustain participation and improve outcomes for e-learning programs.
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“Asheber, Tsedey; Cassidy, Rachel; Ebrahim, Menaal Fatima; Ubfal, Diego Javier; Weis, Toni. 2025. Digital vs in-Person Business Training at Scale: Cautionary Lessons from a Randomized Trial in Ethiopia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43441 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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