SomersetWorks Partnership College Pilot Evaluation

In November 2021 Somerset County Council (SCC) was awarded funding by the UK Community Renewal Fund (CRF) to run an eight-month pilot of an innovative pre-employability programme targeted to the most vulnerable young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the county, under the name of the SomersetWorks Partnership College Pilot. 

After a short period of initial set-up, the Partnership College Pilot ran from March to November 2022, with the delivery of support to young people commencing in April 2022. It was delivered by SomersetWorks together with 22 partner organisations across the county.  

SCC commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) to lead an evaluation of the pilot. The research ran between February and October 2022, with the purpose of evaluating the initial design of the intervention, progress against targets, delivery and management, outcomes, value for money, and lessons learnt.

In particular, the research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the approach taken by the SomersetWorks Partnership College, which combined coordination and brokerage of partners’ offers including therapies as well as education and employment provision to support the most vulnerable young people NEET in the county. This report presents findings from the evaluation.