Summer employment programmes

Overview

What is it?

Summer employment programmes provide young people with paid work experience and/or subsidised jobs for a short, fixed period. Most last between six and eight weeks and take place during the summer holiday between school or college terms, or between leaving school and entering work or further study.

Typically, summer employment programmes are offered to young people who are still at school or college.

Most of the jobs offered in summer employment programmes are entry-level roles in the local economy. In programmes where young people are paid, they generally receive a sum close or equal to the minimum wage. The work is usually part-time.

Programmes that include a ‘summer job’ frequently provide other kinds of support to young people such as:

• specific training for a particular kind of role or sector
• help to improve their basic skills such as literacy and numeracy
• activities that boost engagement in education
• general employability skills and/or job-readiness training including time management and communications skills
• coaching and mentoring
• support to find and apply for jobs after they leave the programme

Summer employment programmes often recruit young people by working with school staff and/or with non-profit or community-based organisations to reach those who could benefit. Young people also often apply to be selected for the programme. Where there are more applicants than places, participants may be chosen through a lottery system, through an assessment of the quality of their application, or using eligibility criteria based on need or disadvantage.

Many summer employment programmes target young people from communities that face high levels of disadvantage. This includes people affected by poverty, unemployment, or urban violence, or who are at risk of not transitioning to further learning or meaningful work. They may be offered to young people with lower academic attainment or who would be less likely to enter further learning, training, or meaningful work.

Programmes are frequently offered to young people who live in a specific geographical area, typically one that shows economic disadvantage for a substantial proportion of the population.

In the research for the Toolkit, all programmes:

• happened outside the school term
• included a fixed-term job placement
• took place in the USA

Most of the programmes provided:

• some general work-related training, and possibly also training alongside the job itself
• a mentor or coach for young people
• support with general life skills (including but not limited to skills for work), as well as support for identifying further learning opportunities and finding work, such as careers guidance, advice about job-seeking and writing applications, and/or interview training.

The programmes examined in this research involved a majority of participants from minority ethnic backgrounds (note that all studies were conducted in the USA). Participants were not targeted based on ethnicity but on other forms of disadvantage.

This review does not include summer programmes that are offered to young people who have already left school and moved into the labour market, for example those who are employed, seeking work, or economically inactive. Nor does it consider programmes offered to groups of young people who are mostly above compulsory school leaving age, or who are not required to be in education. The focus is on programmes that are designed to support transitions.

Costs

The cost rating for summer employment programmes is high.

• Number of inputs: Multiple, including outreach and recruitment, programme design, liaison with employers, provision of supplementary support, and wages for young people (where they are paid).
• Duration of inputs: Most programmes last for more than a month, with a similar or longer duration for recruitment and setup activities.
• Sources of inputs: Multiple, including education systems, employers, experts in different kinds of support and training, and nonprofit and community organisations.
• Expertise: Expertise in employer liaison, training, other kinds of support, and social targeting and disadvantage.
• Settings: Multiple. Recruitment takes place in schools and communities, work experience takes place in employment settings, and other kinds of training and support also need to be hosted.
• Intervention-only inputs: Most programmes are bespoke for a particular place, group of young people, and group of employers.

Key findings

The research suggests that over the long-term, summer employment programmes are likely to have an indirect positive impactThe impact rating indicates whether interventions of this kind, on average, make it more likely that young people will get a job afterwards. This rating is based on the level of impact that youth employment interventions can generally be expected to have. More information can be found in the Toolkit Technical Guide. on youth employment outcomes. This is because they can have a positive impact on other outcomes that subsequently improve youth employment outcomes, such as engagement with education and training, job readiness, skills gains, personal development, and a reduction in involvement in criminal behaviours.

In the short-term, taking part in a summer employment programme are likely to have a small negative impact on youth employment outcomes. This could be because young people who take part are more likely to stay in education and training, postponing their entry into work. This may mean that they become more work-ready over the long-term.

The of data suggests that overall, summer employment programmes are likely to have no short-term impact or only a very small negative short-term impact on the employment related outcomes that were examined in the research for the Toolkit.

However, the research identified varying findings in the evidence from the different studies that were included. Some studies suggest that summer employment programmes could have a positive impact on outcomes that can subsequently have a positive impact on employment outcomes. These include attendance in secondary education, passing tests, entry into further study/training, and a reduction in involvement in criminal activities, including substance abuse.

In the short term, young people who take part in a summer employment programme are slightly less likely to enter employment. This could be because of higher rates of entry into education or training when they leave school. Other evidence shows that the skills and qualifications gained from this kind of learning can make young people more likely to get a job. It is possible that some young people who take part in a summer employment programme postpone their initial entry into work, but may become more work-ready over the long-term.

About the evidence

This summary is based on a 2024 systematic review of evaluations of summer programmes conducted by the Institute of Employment Studies with support from Campbell Collaboration and funded by Youth Endowment Fund and Youth Futures Foundation.

The review includes both summer employment programmes and summer education programmes. Only the evidence for summer employment programmes is included in this toolkit summary as the evaluations of summer education programmes did not include evidence for their impacts on employment outcomes.

The  strength of the evidenceThe evidence strength rating reflects the number of studies that included the intervention and the design and approach to reporting of these studies. More information can be found in the Toolkit Technical Guide  for the impact of summer employment programmes on youth employment compared to services as usualThe terms ‘business as usual’ and ‘services as usual’ refer to the provisions that an individual would have received had they not been enrolled in that particular intervention. In experimental designs they are used to signify what happens in the absence of a studied intervention.  is low. This is because of the very small number of studies available.

The research includes five studies that evaluate the impact of four summer employment programmes on the likelihood of entering employment. These studies compare the impact of the programmes with ‘services as usual’ for young people. Not all of these studies examine all of the outcomes other than entry into employment that are discussed above.

All these studies were conducted in the USA. Care should be taken when translating policy and practice to the UK context.

High-quality impact evaluations of summer employment programmes interventions in a UK context, particularly those provided to young people who face additional barriers to employment, would be of great value in identifying the most effective approaches to recruitment, design and delivery, as well as quantifying the costs and benefits in terms of employment and education outcomes.

How does it work?

Summer employment programmes give young people access to supported and purposeful work. They get an early insight into the labour market, helping them to think about career paths and to raise their ambitions and aspirations for work. This in turn can build motivation to engage in education and do well in tests and exams. The programmes can facilitate their transition to the next phase of education or training. They may be more engaging when they offer provision that is different from prior experiences of learning.

Summer employment programmes also help young people to develop their general skills for the workplace. They can improve their self-esteem and confidence, emotional control, leadership and co-working skills, sense of responsibility, time management skills and problem solving. They also learn how to build positive relationships with peers, and can form personalised and positive relationships with colleagues and other programme staff.

Summer employment programmes can also offer young people productive activities during the summer vacation and reduce the risk that they will get involved in antisocial behaviour or criminal activity.

How to implement it well

The research identified several mechanisms that can improve young people’s engagement with a summer employment programme:

Summary of evidence

Summer employment programmes may have a small indirect positive impact on employment outcomes for disadvantaged young people. This is because they could mean that young people are more likely to engage in activities (such as education and training) that make them more likely to get a job. However, in the short term they have a small negative impact on entry into employment—possibly because young people enter further learning before they seek a job.

The strength of the evidence for summer employment programmes is low. Relatively few programmes have been evaluated using counterfactual methods, and the review did not identify any UK-based studies that were suitable for inclusion. High-quality evaluations examining interventions in the UK context would be of great value, especially in relation to impacts on employment outcomes for young people who face additional barriers to employment.

Useful links

• Muir, D., Orlando, C., Newton, B. (2024). Impact of summer programmes on the outcomes of disadvantaged or ‘at risk’ young people: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2024;20:e1406. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/cl2. https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1406