Improving outcomes for young people

Lessons from Europe

This paper draws together a range of examples and case studies on how other countries are working to improve outcomes for young people and support transitions into employment and learning. It draws on evidence from seven European nations that have strong records on raising participation for young people and/or have introduced interesting and evidence-led reforms.

The purpose of doing this is three-fold:

• to try to provide practical pointers and examples that may be useful to those who are making policy, commissioning or delivering services for young people (across the four nations and locally);
• to support knowledge sharing and promote awareness of what other countries are doing, especially with the UK no longer part of most of the formal arrangements for sharing knowledge between European nations; and
• to contribute to the wider debate on how we might more fundamentally reform our approach to how we support young people in future – to support greater collaboration, clearer accountabilities, stronger local partnerships, and more inclusive, accessible and effective services, particularly for marginalised young people.

This report is the latest output from IES work funded by the Health Foundation around improving the quality of work for young people. This has included a suite of resources targeted to youth employment partnerships and focused on ‘what works’ evidence, alongside a large scale youth-centered research programme centering on young people’s perspectives on what good quality work and support means to them. This project intends to build on our work with national governments and local areas, and to inform work next year on wider systems reform.