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Youth Futures launches first large-scale trial of summer employment programmes in England and Wales
Aug 19, 25
Co-funded with Youth Endowment Fund, the evaluation will involve a total of 3000 young people at risk of violence, generating much-needed causal evidence to deepen understanding.
To help marginalised young people find and keep good work, we need to know the impact, cost and efficacy of interventions that are designed to improve education, training and employment outcomes.
The latest international evidence – collated in our Youth Employment Toolkit – indicates that summer employment programmes may support personal development and could, in turn, increase job readiness and skills.
Building the evidence
To establish if summer employment programmes are effective interventions for youth employment, we want to better understand the sequence of events for young people in the UK after they have completed these types of programmes.
Our 2024 feasibility study demonstrated that a Summer Jobs Programme could be established in the UK and had sufficient demand to meet the conditions necessary for the successful completion of a randomised controlled trial (RCT).
The study recommended changes to the programme’s components and its operational delivery to:
- better reach and engage young people with the most limited labour market experience and the greatest potential to be diverted from youth violence
- better support participating employers
Moving towards high-quality testing
Informed by the feasibility study, this summer we have launched a pilot RCT.
The specifically designed six-week programme is being delivered by 18 partners across Greater Manchester, London, North East, South Wales, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber to 600 young people at risk of violence. The UK Government has highlighted this group as a focus of recent policy interventions, including in relation to its Plan for Change, which includes missions to reduce youth violence and breakdown barriers to opportunity.
The pilot RCT programme includes:
- a placement preparation week
- five weeks of paid work experience
- dedicated youth worker support
Another 600 young people are receiving ‘service as usual’ provision from their referral organisation as a comparator group.
The pilot will confirm whether key trial design elements, such as the random allocation of young people into an intervention or control group, their engagement for the duration of the trial, and measurement of outcomes data, work in practice.
If they do, the evaluation can then progress to a full-efficacy RCT, which will involve an additional 1800 young people. An evaluation of this type and scale will provide decisionmakers with robust evidence on the effectiveness of summer programmes in supporting youth employment and lowering the risk of involvement in violence.
“Central to our mission as a What Works Centre is generating high-quality evidence of if and how interventions work to improve youth employment outcomes. This pilot is an exciting step in building the sector’s understanding of designing and delivering successful summer employment programmes in the UK.”
Chris Goulden - Director of Impact and Evidence, Youth Futures Foundation
"I think it’s inspiring to see initiatives like Summer Jobs focus on young people’s potential and wellbeing, not just on short-term outcomes. It shows a commitment to creating opportunities, building confidence, and supporting young people to thrive – something we should all be paying attention to."
Maximillian, Building Futures Ambassador
