Social Futures Institute
     

Youth Achievement Foundations Evaluation

Professor Tony Chapman, Peter van der Graaf, Emma Bailey and Catherine Iles

Sponsor/collaborating institutions

This three year project is funded by the Youth Sector Development Fund.

Background

This project will involve an action-based research evaluation of the Youth Achievement Foundation programme which is being led by UK Youth.

The programme combines UK Youth’s long-established Youth Achievement Award and an innovative approach to alternative education provision for young people by 7KS Enterprise College - an independent education provider. The intention is to scale up the innovative and transformational educational approach by establishing 10 Youth Achievement Foundations, which will be delivered in partnership with UK Youth, 7KS Enterprise College, schools, youth services, local education authorities and local youth work providers.

Each Foundation will commit to offering a tailor-made curriculum based on personal development and employability, and be accredited through the Youth Achievement Award programme. Young people will be supported by a teaching, mentoring and pastoral staff team.

The Foundations will offer structured, alternative provision to the most disadvantaged young people in their local area. The alternative curriculum links to the National Curriculum and Key Skills, as well as other accreditations and developments such as COPE and PSHE.

This is a unique programme which draws together public sector, private sector and third sector partners and a key objective of the evaluation programme is to explore the efficacy of partnership working in a variety of social, cultural and economic settings.

Aims

  • explore the impact of the Foundations on young people’s positive life choices
  • assess the efficacy of the intervention at an operational level and partnership level
  • evaluate the wider policy and practice environment through desk-based literature research.

Methods

  • record young people’s benefits by developing a quantitative baseline template for the Foundations
  • observe and interview young people at local centres to explore changes in positive life choices
  • interview alumni of the programme to assess longer term impact
  • interview stakeholders on organisational management and impact on the wider community
  • observation at steering group meetings to support learning and identify best practices
  • maintain a constructive dialogue with evaluators working on Youth Sector Development Fund sister projects on methodology, analysis and policy implications.

Key findings

The evaluation team will produce interim working papers for dissemination at practitioner, policy makers and academic conferences. The final research report will focus on the impact of the intervention on the way that young people identify with a range of potential life-outcomes and how they may be able to articulate their ideas and change their behaviour to realise their potential and achieve their ambitions. The evaluation will also report on the process of delivering Youth Achievement Awards across foundations, offering learning points to the foundations and UK Youth on the efficacy of delivery patterns.