Empowering YOUth Initiatives was an employment program for young people aged 15 to 24 years who were long-term unemployed or at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. It trialled innovative approaches to improving participants’ skills and helping them progress towards sustainable employment. 

The evaluation of the program was underpinned by an overarching strategy of identifying innovative activities and service delivery methods that best supported the intended outcomes, and identifying learnings which could be used to inform ongoing service delivery as well as future policy and program design. Initiatives under the program were evaluated individually and typically combined qualitative fieldwork with participants, providers and stakeholders; initiative and departmental data; and progress reports written by program provider organisations. 

This consolidated report summarises learnings that were common across the individual initiatives, summarising learnings into four themes: activities delivered, the delivery process, specific intervention types and departmental learnings. Some learnings across initiatives included the importance of considering local labour market conditions; supply of participants for services offered; providing work experience opportunities that are otherwise hard to obtain; building trust with participants and managing barriers to participation; and identifying non-vocational barriers and disengagement. The variability of the initiatives limited the ability to evaluate cost effectiveness, however, the initiatives provided evidence of service models that had the potential to reduce costs per outcome.