Baseline and Midline Follow-Up Data for Leadership Promotion Interventions in Bangladeshi Garment Sector, 2019–2021

The Early Career Intervention (ECI) project builds on earlier work by the team aiming to increase the share of female supervisors on sewing floor production lines in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment sector. ECI began as a pilot with three factories. The research team asked each of the three factories to nominate up to 50 sewing machine operators for training, with an equal. Number of females and males. Each of the operators nominated by the factory was given a diagnostic survey which measured basic skills (numeracy, literacy and knowledge of garment production) and interest in being a supervisor. Those workers scoring above the passing level in the diagnostic (a large majority of those nominated in each of the three factories) were randomly allocated to either treatment or control. Those in the treatment group were scheduled to receive three hours of training each fortnight for one year. [Note that the training was cut short by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.] Our primary outcomes of interest were employee retention and promotion to supervisory roles.