Evaluation of two youth unemployment programmes in Liverpool and Durham
Funded by the Youth Futures Foundation, EDIT is currently completing a pilot evaluation of two youth employment support programmes: Merseyside Youth Association’s “Talent Match” and Durham County Council’s “DurhamWorks Futures”. The programmes work with young people who have complex needs and additional barriers to reaching sustained EET outcomes, providing them with one-to-one tailored support and supplying opportunities and additional services, such as counselling, across a period of 6-9 months. Our pilot evaluation will use an engagement indicator and administrative and survey data to estimate the impact that engaging with the programmes has on participants’ EET outcomes, and soft outcomes such as confidence and self-efficacy. A qualitative implementation and process evaluation has been carried out concurrently to explore the mechanisms of change within the programmes, and the barriers and facilitators to successful delivery. This has contributed to a feasibility study which is being conducted to establish if the programmes are suitable for further efficacy trials.