Evaluation of two youth unemployment programmes in Liverpool and Durham
Funded by the Youth Futures Foundation, EDIT conducted parallel pilot evaluations of two youth employment programmes: Merseyside Youth Association’s “Talent Match” and Durham County Council’s “DurhamWorks Futures”. Both programmes worked with young people with complex needs and additional barriers to reaching sustained engagement in education, employment or training (EET). The programmes provided one-to-one tailored support and supplying opportunities and additional services, such as counselling, across a period of 6-9 months.
Our pilot evaluations found promising early evidence that both programmes contributes to improves EET outcomes. Qualitative findings also indicated a range of positive changes in young people’s confidence and self-esteem, social and interpersonal skills, and knowledge of the job market. A main driver of these outcomes were the strong and trusted relationships between young people and their mentors, highlighted by participants in both interventions as a vital factor in their progress.
As part of the project, we also conducted feasibility studies to explore whether the programmes could be evaluated through more robust experimental or quasi-experimental methods in the future. However, we noted several challenges. Both delivery partners found an experimental design (such as an RCT) unsuitable. Quasi-experimental designs were explored at length, particularly for the Talent Match programme in Liverpool, but it was ultimately found that the administrative data set to facilitate this would not be accessible within a feasible timescale.