Introduction

The Youth Futures Foundation was set up in 2019 to narrow employment gaps for young people by identifying what works and why, investing in evidence generation and innovation, and igniting a movement for change, so that young people1 have fair access to good quality jobs. We want to improve the whole youth employment and training system by working in partnership with policy makers, employers, practitioners and young people themselves, to remove barriers, expand opportunities and support more young people from marginalised backgrounds to be ready for work.

This is a complex mission and vision for a What Works Centre. There are three specific challenges that we face:

• 1. Needing to generate evidence within a fragmented policy and practice space and a fluctuating labour market – something that has become particularly acute because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 2. Aiming to get more employers doing things backed by evidence to effectively recruit and retain young people from marginalised backgrounds.

• 3. Getting young people with direct experience of disadvantages relating to employment and skills to participate meaningfully in our work.

This chapter sets out how we are approaching these challenges, balancing the need to always take a rigorous, evidence-led approach within a volatile context and with some stakeholders that may (understandably) not always have evidence and the scientific method first and foremost in their minds. The next sections explore these three challenges in more detail and our responses to them, before concluding with a summary of how we plan to develop further and take them on as a What Works Centre.

Generating evidence in a fragmented policy and practice context and a fluctuating labour market

There is no single government department with overall responsibility for youth employment, with policy spanning the Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), HM Treasury, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – via whom we are funded, through dormant assets – Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Other departments are responsible for some young people who may face difficulties in accessing the job market – for example, the Ministry of Justice and people leaving young offending institutes.