The evaluation of traineeships

Summary & aims

Traineeships offer young people a work placement and work preparation training, plus the opportunity to improve their English and Maths skills. They are aimed at young people who are not working and have little work experience, but are expected to have a reasonable chance of being ready for employment or an apprenticeship within six months of starting the Traineeship. The evaluation seeks to establish whether Traineeships are effective in helping young people to progress into sustained employment, an apprenticeship, or further learning.

Methodology

Methods NIESR’s role in the evaluation is to design the approach to establishing the causal impact of Traineeships. Assuming that the analysis of administrative data carried out in the first stage of the study suggests that there is a credible approach to estimating the impact of the scheme, NIESR will use these data to estimate the impact of the initiative on the three outcomes that Traineeships seek to effect i.e. progress into sustained employment, an apprenticeship or further learning. This will form part of a wider evaluation project which includes qualitative case studies of providers delivering Traineeships and surveys of trainees, providers and employers (carried out by TNS-BMRB, the evaluation consortium leader). Timescale and funder The evaluation is managed by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, working in partnership with the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Findings and Recommendations

Output The final report is available here. Dorsett, R., and Stokes, L. (2021) Pre-apprenticeship training for young people: estimating the marginal and average treatment effects. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A. Dorsett, R., Gray, H., Speckesser, S. and Stokes, L. (2019) Estimating the impact of Traineeships Department for Education Research Report 919 Dorsett, R., and Stokes, L. (2019) Pre-apprenticeship training for young people: estimating the marginal and average treatment effects University of Westminster working paper 2019/003