Employment counselling Toolkit resources

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Employment counselling

Employment counselling delivered as part of an active labour market programme to young people aged 16 to 24 supports young people to secure a job that is a good fit for them in the longer term and may also increase interest in higher education, by helping them to assess their skills and interests and explore suitable employment options.

Last updated: 26 August 2026

Education

Employment

Training

Little or no difference made to recent employment

For every 100 young people who are NEET and take part in employment counselling as a component of a targeted youth employment intervention, around the same number of young people are in employment 12 to 24 months later compared to those who did not take part. This component makes little or no difference to recent employment.

Key findings

Headline insights about this component based on current high-quality evidence, where employment coaching has been delivered as part of an active labour market programme to young people aged 16 to 24.

Positive

Longer-term employment

Employment counselling makes a difference to young people's employment two years on from starting the programme.

The research indicates that there is a 35% probability of a median impact on employment at 24 months after the start of an intervention is in the low positive range. The probability of any positive impact on employment at 24 months after the start of an intervention is 56%.

Work quality

Employment counselling could increase the length of time young people are in employment, and the income they earn from work.

The research suggests that employment counselling is likely to have a low positive impact on income from work, and a moderate positive impact on the length of time for which young people work.

Impacts on the hours for which young people work are in the ‘low or no’ range.

Finding the right fit

Once in work, young people are more likely to stay and progress where their chosen career is a good fit.

Employment counselling may help young people not just to find a job, but to find a job that is a good fit for them, where they want to stay longer and can earn more.

What is employment counselling?

Employment counselling offers guidance to help jobseekers to assess their skills and interests, and explore suitable employment options.

Typically employment counselling

includes one-on-one sessions with trained counsellor

helps jobseekers understand the labour market and identify potential career paths

Who is employment counselling for?

Young people aged 16 and over who are unemployed, NEET, or economically inactive.

Who can offer employment counselling?

Any UK organisation — business, charity, public-sector body or social enterprise — that meets legal requirements such as:

providing a safe working environment
complying with working-time rules for young people

How long is employment counselling?

We did not find evidence for the specific duration of the employment coaching element within multi-component interventions.

How is employment counselling funded?

Funding may come from diverse sources or from a mixture of sources including:

government (local or central)
charities
community organisations

What are the delivery settings?

Workplaces of participating employers
College, university, or independent training provider in-person or virtual
Schools and communities

Benefits for young people

Employment counselling can support individuals to:

assess and understand their own skills and interests
work out what labour market pathways are most suitable for them and ways to gain qualifications to access these
develop a plan to pursue their desired employment outcome

Benefits for employers

Employment counselling can support employers to:

recruit young people who have an interest in the specific role or sector
reduce turnover and strengthen retention as young people who have found the right fit are more likely to stay and develop

The cost rating for employment counselling is moderatemoderate

Calculations are based on insights from available high-quality studies on the complexity of delivery requirements and estimated associated costs.

Outreach and recruitment activity

Tailored and varied with associated staffing, materials, scheduling and administrative costs, promotional activities and campaigns. Delivery to young people with complex needs or vulnerabilities may require a more targeted approach to recruitment.

Delivery intensity

Evidence on the most effective duration for this component is limited. Support provided typically involves personalised guidance, which requires additional time and mentoring skills from staff.

Delivery partners

Training providers and potential intermediaries that need to co-ordinate in partnership, supported by programme planning and management, requiring additional admin resource

Delivery expertise

Specialist, requiring expert work coaches with the skills to develop intelligence on local labour markets and to liaise with employers and other local stakeholders.

Wages, financial assistance or incentives

Recruitment costs and wages for specialist coaches, and provision for programme administration and management staff where appropriate

Delivery settings

General group settings rather than personalised or 1-2-1 and can be at a college, university, or independent training provider in-person or virtual. Often require physical learning materials and resources. Can be integrated and combined with other intervention types and support packages.

Outreach and recruitment activity	Tailored and varied with associated staffing, materials, scheduling and administrative costs, promotional activities and campaigns. Delivery to young people with complex needs or vulnerabilities may require a more targeted approach to recruitment.
Delivery intensity	Evidence on the most effective duration for this component is limited. Support provided typically involves personalised guidance, which requires additional time and mentoring skills from staff.
Delivery partners	Training providers and potential intermediaries that need to co-ordinate in partnership, supported by programme planning and management, requiring additional admin resource
Delivery expertise	Specialist, requiring expert work coaches with the skills to develop intelligence on local labour markets and to liaise with employers and other local stakeholders.
Wages, financial assistance or incentives	Recruitment costs and wages for specialist coaches, and provision for programme administration and management staff where appropriate
Delivery settings	General group settings rather than personalised or 1-2-1 and can be at a college, university, or independent training provider in-person or virtual. Often require physical learning materials and resources. Can be integrated and combined with other intervention types and support packages.

Considerations for decision makers

Based on existing evidence, we’ve identified some common features that support the commissioning, design and delivery of effective youth employment programmes:

Ensure outreach and awareness activities are effective and targeted to reach those most likely to benefit

Read more about Ensure outreach and awareness activities are effective and targeted to reach those most likely to benefit

Design, fund and deliver outreach and recruitment activities that raise young people’s awareness, with targeted initiatives to reach under-represented group who are most likely to benefit.

This might include:

Young people who have been out of work and/or learning for longer periods.
Young people without Level 2 qualifications.
Young people whose life experiences put them at higher risk of marginalisation in the labour market, for example those with experience of the care system and/or with SEN.

Discover more about risk factors associated with being NEET.

Also consider how best to identify and engage the most suitable partners and employers for a programme. Engagement should be timely and clear, in ways that raise awareness and facilitate recruitment, enrolment, and sustained engagement.

Effective programmes may use direct community outreach activities for engaging under-served groups, alongside up-to-date local and administrative data, working with public employment services, or advertising vacancies along with eligibility criteria.

Tailor and structure programmes well to support access and maintain engagement

Read more about Tailor and structure programmes well to support access and maintain engagement

Design, fund and deliver programmes that

take needs assessment and case management approaches
where relevant, are quality assured by appropriate methods
support young people to develop a range of theoretical, practical, transferrable and interpersonal skills
help young people maintain motivation and understand their professional and personal development
prioritise tailored support for participants, accounting for the complexity and diversity of individuals’ needs
monitor staff capacity and support to reduce administrative burden

Take a joined-up, collaborative approach

Read more about Take a joined-up, collaborative approach

A strong relationship between policymakers, learning providers, employers, community organisations and local skills delivery organisations including Mayoral Strategic Authorities and Local Skills Improvement Plan areas supports effective youth employment support programmes.

Design, fund and deliver programmes that

foster collaboration with education providers such as colleges to improve access to relevant teaching experience.
incorporate cohesive management structures applicable to geographical scale and goals
account for existing infrastructure

rogrammes that are highly dispersed benefit from a combination of centralised and local management structures with a project director across delivery partners to ensure consistent delivery approach across multiple sites.

Smaller scale programmes benefit from centralised management, responsible for designing programme guidelines and coordinating delivery across delivery sites within a limited geographical area.

Effective programmes may establish communities of practice across local delivery leaders or steering groups.

Encourage systematic monitoring and evaluation to help build and strengthen the evidence base

Read more about Encourage systematic monitoring and evaluation to help build and strengthen the evidence base

Support providers and delivery organisations to accurately and systematically capture and communicate data and milestones and track programme outcomes. This may include structured and standardised tracking forms, or developing realistic programme-specific performance frameworks.

For funders and commissioners – ensure recorded data, reporting and assessment captures a full range of appropriate and relevant youth employment and related outcomes to help rich understanding to ensure rich picture of what programmes do.

Encouraging reporting commonly recognised metrics allows evaluation to be easily comparable and included in the growing evidence base.

Prioritise staff recruitment, retention and training to build trust and reduce turnover

Read more about Prioritise staff recruitment, retention and training to build trust and reduce turnover

Design, fund and deliver programmes that:

recruit staff as early as feasible, allowing time for training which can support initial engagement and familiarisation
pay staff appropriately and seek where possible to employ staff on long-term or permanent contracts to ensure consistency and continuity of delivery
hire staff with appropriate knowledge, experience and/or qualifications, and provide sufficient training, ongoing support, and opportunities for peer learning
consider hiring staff with similar lived experiences to the target population and/or prior experience of working with young people in the local area
ensure low staff-to-participant ratios where possible, to support capacity to engage with participants on resource-heavy tasks such as co-designed action plans
clearly define roles and responsibilities and communicate intended outcomes and benchmarks to strengthen accountability

About the evidence

What’s included in the analysis?

Read more about What’s included in the analysis?

Included studies	90
Location(s)	High-income countries
Outcome	Labour force status, earnings, employment duration, hours worked, and education & skills
Comparator	'Services as usual' / Business as usual

The Youth Employment Toolkit brings together evidence from robust studies in high-income countries that:

measured the intervention’s impact against what would have happened without it
defined employment counselling as a component of a targeted intervention to support youth employment outcomes

Find details of individual studies, as well as other systematic reviews of youth employment evaluations, in the Youth Employment Evidence and Gap Map.

More information about included studies can be found in page 55-60 of the full CNMA report. The specific evidence profile for employment counselling can be found on page 145.

The evidence strength ratings for employment counselling reflect the number of studies included in the meta-analysis. Studies were scored on reported design, sample size, approach to attrition, and definitions of interventions and outcome measures. More detail can be found in the technical guide.

Implications for evaluators and commissioners

Read more about Implications for evaluators and commissioners

The current evidence can be strengthened by taking a consistent approach to incorporating standardised metrics for education, employment and training outcomes as well as outcomes that indicate work quality.

Prioritise further understanding of component duration to identify typical delivery and what might be optimal for success.

Employment counselling