Action
The Summer Jobs Programme offers young people who are at risk of violence a paid work placement during the six-week summer holiday period.
Launched in May by youth work charity UK Youth, the programme matches young people aged 16-25 with a dedicated youth worker to support them during their work placement with a local business.
More than 400 young people living in high-crime areas in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and 11 London boroughs took part in this summer’s programme, working with over 100 employers. Roles included sports coaching, multimedia content creation, administration, retail and hospitality.
The first phase of the three-year programme received £1.5mn from the Youth Endowment Fund, the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the Youth Futures Foundation to develop and deliver the programme in the UK.
It follows the success of similar schemes in the US cities of Chicago, New York and Boston, which have shown a positive impact on reducing offending, alongside promising results in social and emotional skills and job readiness.
“Through this funding round we are looking to test if findings from the US can be replicated in the UK,” explains Lauren Oliver, head of network delivery at UK Youth. “We’re focusing on the feasibility of implementation first, and gauging interest from young people, employers and youth organisations.
“The programme includes a strong evaluation component, allowing us to assess the evaluation methods and how participants engage with the tools. Next year it will be piloted, and in the third year, the plan is to fully implement it,” she adds.
To be eligible for the programme, young people must meet one of the categories for being at risk of violence. These range from having contact with a social worker, to being involved with youth offending teams or having a fixed-term exclusion from school.
Once recruited, the young person meets with their youth worker to complete an employment passport which is shared with the employer. “This outlines the barriers the young person may face to employment,” explains Rachael Barber, project manager at UK Youth. The young people then attend a 25-hour preparation week which involves goal setting and expectations within the workplace.
“The youth worker meets with the young person three times during the work placement, supporting them to overcome any challenges and helping them to identify the skills they’ve learnt,” Barber says. The end of the placement in September culminates in a celebration event.
Impact
Of the 430 young people who were enrolled on the programme this summer, 420 have completed more than 60% of the placement. “This meets our measures for successful completion of the programme,” Oliver explains.
Data is currently being evaluated by The Ending Youth Violence Lab and is due to be published soon. But early qualitative feedback from young people shows that they like getting paid and having something to do.
Youth workers report that targeting those at risk of violence is a “unique selling point of the programme”.
Employers welcome the opportunity to support young people despite the initial “challenges” in getting them onboard, Barber says. Employers also value the funding, citing that it “removes the burden of payment”.
Following the successful summer placements, 11 young people have been hired permanently by Burger King.
Feedback from a youth organisation found some young programme participants were pressurised by peers to join in with the riots this summer, but chose not to after speaking with their youth worker.
“This could suggest that if the programme wasn’t in place, they may have been involved in the violence,” Barber says.
Youth workers play a “critical role” in acting as a link between the young person and the employer, she adds.
“They work with employers to understand some of the barriers young people are facing and the reasons why they may be late for work or if they’ve demonstrated challenging behaviour in the workplace,” Barber says. “Some text or call the young person to make sure they’re awake for work. Without this wraparound support, retention rates would be lower.”
A large-scale randomised controlled trial will take place next year, looking at violence rates among young people and how other behaviours and learnings are affected by the programme. This will involve 600 young people in a control group and 600 in an intervention group, rising to 900 in each group if the programme continues for a third year.
“We’re looking towards sustainable delivery in the long-term,” Oliver says. “We hope the programme provides powerful learning to shift the culture around employability for young people who face such barriers.”
The next phase of development aims to increase the variety of work placements available to young people and extend the programme to more UK regions. UK Youth are keen to engage new employers in the programme, contact summerjobs@ukyouth.org