The M2W initiative paired unemployed young adults (aged 18 to 25) at risk of long-term unemployment with a volunteer mentor, who supported them through the processes of identifying a career, searching for work, and preparing for employment. To be eligible to participate, the young person needed to:

• Be aged under 25
• Have received a welfare payment in the 6 months prior to recruitment, and
• Not have a significant connection to the workforce.

The program commenced in June 2018 and ran over 24 months, delivered in a number of stages. Stage 1 was the pilot phase of the program, established in July 2018. Stage 2 commenced in December 2018 and Stage 3 began in April 2019. The program officially ended in June 2020.

This report presents background on youth unemployment in Australia, followed by a demographic profile of participants. Then, based on the young peoples’ survey responses, outcomes for M2W and control group participants across a variety of domains relevant to employment, namely health, education, housing, wellbeing, job readiness, barriers to employment, and employment are presented. Mentoring experiences are then explored, primarily for the M2W group; however, the control group’s experiences of formal and informal mentoring received from sources other than M2W are examined. Finally, a conclusion chapter summarises the findings and comments on the implications for continuation of the program and youth unemployment in Australia.