Building Futures, News
Funding round now open: Building Futures
Dec 01, 25
With the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) remaining stubbornly high, we need to strengthen our understanding of how earlier intervention can prevent youth unemployment before it occurs.
Our Building Futures programme is a landmark step towards expanding the evidence base on NEET prevention. Targeting young people before they reach working age, Building Futures is testing mentoring support for secondary school students who are at risk of missing out on further education, training or future employment.
In October 2024, we launched the Demonstrator phase of Building Futures to produce insights that are now shaping the design of Phase 2, combining the strongest evidence on mentoring design and early NEET risk factors with promising components of programme delivery. Read more about the emerging insights from Building Futures so far, here.
Phase 2 will involve a strategic scale-up to enable the programme to reach 4,500 young people. An impact evaluation will measure how the programme influences outcomes and generate new evidence to deepen our understanding of what works. Phase 2 will run between September 2026 – December 2028, including mobilisation, intervention delivery & outcomes tracking.
We are now inviting organisations to apply for funding and be part of delivering the Building Futures programme. This is an exciting opportunity to:
- Deliver 1:1 mentoring to young people in secondary schools
- Build trusted adult relationships grounded in trauma-informed practice
- Participate in a robust impact evaluation to strengthen the evidence base on preventative interventions and their potential impact on outcomes of secondary school students at risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training).
We are open to applications from intermediary organisations and delivery organisations. If you are passionate about improving young people’s journeys into work and committed to evidence-based practice, we’d love to hear from you.
To learn more about the funding round and how to apply, please visit our programme page and review our guidance documents for detailed application information. There are separate guidance documents and application forms for intermediary organisations and delivery organisations
Support with your application
If you would like to know more about this funding round, you can register for our upcoming webinars taking place during December and January.
We will be running the same webinar on four different dates. Please click on the links below to register for a webinar.
The deadline for stage one applications is 17:00 on Friday 23 January 2026.
