Our three-year funding and learning programme to understand, enact and embed evidence-informed change
The challenge
One in eight young people in the UK are not in employment, education or training (NEET). This persistent challenge is known to particularly affect young people with additional barriers to employment.
Explore our 2023 report for more information.
The opportunity
Reducing the NEET rate to that of the Netherlands – where only one in 20 young people are not in employment or education – would not only ensure young people themselves are able to achieve a better future, but could also add £69 billion to the UK economy over the long term.
What are we doing?
Evidence compiled in our Youth Employment Toolkit indicates that both on-the-job and off-the-job training may have a positive impact on outcomes for young people with additional barriers to employment.
As the What Works Centre for Youth Employment, we now want to work in partnership to put these insights into practice. We are supporting UK-based organisations to design and deliver on and off-the-job training activities and evaluate the impact.
Programme overview
Evidence into Action is our unique learning and funding opportunity for voluntary sector delivery organisations in England that are committed to developing their youth employability activities.
We will award a maximum of 10 Delivery Grants of up to £75,000 per year for up to three years. Alongside the funding, we will provide learning and development support.
To deepen collective understanding of what works for youth employment, we will also commission an evaluation partner to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme.
We have worked with an advisory group of young people and practitioners to help us design our approach.
Phase 1 - 2025
Up to £75,000 funding for 12 months. Activity includes:
- A six-month learning journey of workshops and one-to-one consultations to understand evidence-based approaches, supported by a dedicated learning partner
- Capacity building with strategic infrastructure partner, Action for Race Equality
- Six months to apply the learning in practice through developing, testing and piloting approaches
- Support to develop plans and budgets for phase 2
- Evaluation across the year
Phase 2: 2026 & 2027
Additional funding of up to £75,000 per year, for up to two years.
- Delivery of activities developed in phase 1
- Evaluation continues
Aims
With this programme we want to:
- Improve knowledge mobilisation across the youth employment sector
- Support practitioners, employers, funders and commissioners to understand and enact evidence-informed change in the way that they do things
- Provide an opportunity for delivery organisations to explore and implement what our Youth Employment toolkit says about One and Off the-job training to enable young people to thrive
A key aim of the Evidence into Action programme is to understand how practitioners can effectively take learning from relevant studies and apply it to supporting young people within their own context.
“We look forward to utilising our Youth Employment Toolkit to create systemic change across the sector, by encouraging practitioners and funders to take a ‘what works’ approach.”
Barry Fletcher – CEO, Youth Futures Foundation
Learn more
Explore the current international evidence on the impact, cost and effectiveness of common interventions designed to help young people get into work.
What is on-the-job training?
Learning that takes place primarily in the workplace, and alongside or embedded with paid or unpaid work.
What is off-the-job training?
Learning that takes place primarily outside the workplace, for example in a classroom or workshop.
