Summer jobs delivered as active labour market programmes to young people aged 16 to 24 can have positive impacts on education outcomes and personal development and indirectly may also have positive impacts on youth employment outcomes over the longer term.
Last updated: 26 August 2026
Low/no impact
Insufficient
Low positive impact
Emerging
Low/no impact
Insufficient
High - likely to require intense, complex and specific resource needs for effective delivery
Headline insights about this component based on current high-quality evidence, where summer jobs are delivered as an active labour market programme to young people aged 16 to 24.
Long term
Programmes lift education engagement, job readiness, skills and personal development, and those gains improve employment outcomes.
Short term
Participants are slightly less likely to move into a job at school leaving age, as more of them stay in education or training.
What drives it
The skills and qualifications gained through summer employment programmes can make young people more likely to get a job.
Paid entry-level work experience and additional support for a short, fixed period during summer holidays.
Programmes are typically offered to 16 to 24-year-olds who are:
Many programmes focus on young people from communities that face high levels of disadvantage or who are at risk of not transitioning to further learning or meaningful work.
Any UK organisation—business, charity, public-sector body or social enterprise—that meets legal requirements such as:
Usually between six and eight weeks.
Programmes can recruit young people by working with school staff and/or with non-profit or community-based organisations.
Young people can also apply to be selected for a programme.
Where there are more applicants than places, participants may be chosen through:
In the UK, funding is typically a mix of charitable, public and partnership funding.
Local delivery partners such as youth organisations receive funding to run the programme on the ground, often centrally co-ordinated.
Most models combine:
The programme funder usually covers young people’s wages plus delivery costs such as training, mentoring, supervision, and payroll.
Summer jobs are designed to help young people build confidence, skills and insight into the workplace.
Emerging research indicates that taking part can:
In turn, these outcomes may have a knock-on effect on employability in the long term.
For example, the skills and qualifications gained through summer employment programmes can make young people more likely to get a job in the future.
Offering structured summer employment programmes enables employers to develop early-career talent and may:
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 of summer jobs, with targeted initiatives to reach under-represented group who are most likely to benefit.
This might include working with schools, youth organisations, community groups and parents and carers to directly engage under-served groups, alongside up-to-date local and administrative data, working with public employment services, or advertising vacancies along with eligibility criteria.
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.
Design, fund and implement programmes that
Design, fund and deliver programmes that:
Effective programmes may utilise personal advisors or co-designed action plans that align with participants’ goals, aspirations and circumstances. These are most effective when used consistently.
Design, fund and implement programmes that prioritise collaboration and establish infrastructure between key stakeholders – such as networks of employers, schools, community groups, training organisations and local government – to improve co-ordination, support recruitment and outreach, and capture insights into students’ interests, skills, and aspirations.
Match provision to opportunities in the local labour market and the skills needs of employers.
This can be supported by effective involvement and support in planning stages, and flexibility within national or regional frameworks to meet the needs of specific groups of learners, sectors, and employers.
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.
Design, fund and deliver apprenticeships that can incorporate staff and young people’s insights and feedback to better respond to needs and improve service delivery, performance and outcomes.
Relevant and strategic adjustments may include changing the intensity, duration of or type of elements, or adapting eligibility criteria or services to fit the needs of young people in the local area.
Design, fund and implement programmes that reduce practical barriers such as costs of taking part. For example, ensure that young people are fairly paid or receive travel or meal support. This can also increase how the opportunity is valued. Effective programmes also communicate clearly with families or households about payment and expectations.
| Included studies | 5 |
|---|---|
| No. of programmes evaluated | 4 |
| Location(s) | USA (Care should be taken when translating policy and practice to the UK context) |
| Outcome | Likelihood of entering employment |
| Comparator | 'Services as usual' |
| Demographics | Most participants were from minority ethnic backgrounds. Participants were not targeted based on ethnicity, but on other forms of disadvantage. |
This evidence summary is based on a 2024 systematic review of evaluations that:
Please note this is different to the underlying analysis that informs other Youth Employment Toolkit entries.
The evidence strength ratings reflect the number of studies included in the 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 full report.
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.
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