Financial assistance delivered as part of an active labour market programme to young people aged 16 to 24 can improve employment for young people by reducing barriers to access and participation, and may support engagement in education and training.
Last updated: 26 August 2026
Low positive impact
Well supported
Medium positive impact
Consolidating
Low positive impact
Emerging
Moderate - likely to require some intense, complex or specific resource needs for effective delivery
For every 100 young people who are NEET and take part in financial assistance as a component of a targeted youth employment intervention, around 6 additional young people are in employment 12 to 24 months later compared to similar young people who did not take part. This component could increase recent employment by around 6 percentage points.
Headline insights about this component based on current high-quality evidence, where financial assistance is delivered as part of an active labour market programme to young people aged 16 to 24.
Positive
Overall, financial assistance is likely to have a positive impact on young people's recent employment, and engagement in vocational education and training.
The research suggests that financial assistance is likely to have a positive impact on:
This intervention is associated with a very low negative impact on apprenticeship participation, possibly because young people who receive financial assistance are less likely to seek out paid forms of training.
Mixed
Financial assistance is likely to have a low positive impact on the number of hours that young people work. Little or no impact on other work quality outcomes may reflect greater focus on gaining experience and qualifications.
Subgroup analysis
Impacts may be greater for older individuals within the 16-24 age group, which could reflect the higher likelihood of living independently or having dependents.
Financial assistance provides targeted financial support to help jobseekers overcome barriers that hinder the search for or engagement in employment, education or training.
Young people who are not in work or training, and who face barriers to taking part in work or learning because of the associated costs that would otherwise be prohibitive.
Any UK organisation — business, charity, public-sector body or social enterprise — that meets legal requirements such as:
The duration and terms of financial assistance vary considerably with individual contexts and the needs of young people.
Funding may come from diverse sources or from a mixture of sources including:
By easing or removing practical barriers to participation in work and learning, financial assistance can support young people to:
Financial assistance can support employers to:
Calculations are based on insights from available high-quality studies on the complexity of delivery requirements and estimated associated costs.
Based on existing evidence, we’ve identified some common features that support the commissioning, design and delivery of effective youth employment programmes:
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:
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.
Design, fund and deliver programmes that consider and seek to address specific participation needs and minimise barriers. This can be done with local labour market knowledge, and assessment of individual’s circumstances.
Incorporate participants’ insights and feedback to better respond to needs and improve service delivery, performance and outcomes.
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.
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.
| Included studies | 30 |
|---|---|
| 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:
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 financial assistance can be found on page 167.
The evidence strength ratings for financial assistance 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.
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.
If you have feedback or a question about the Toolkit, please get in touch.
