Evaluating Welfare to Work for young people Available to Purchase

After two years of operation on a national scale, the New Deal Welfare to Work (WtW) programme for young people aged 18‐24 (New Deal for Young People, NDYP) – a flagship scheme and key element in New Labour’s general lifelong learning policy for post‐compulsory education and training – has been extensively evaluated both by official government and independent researchers. This research is analysed within the framework of policy analyses of the key aims of the New Deal and associated lifelong learning objectives, and the main findings are examined against the background of a case study of the operation of the NDYP in the West Midlands region. By way of a conclusion, a contrast between the (generally favourable) quantitative outcomes of WtW and the (partly unfavourable) qualitative studies is drawn in terms of short‐ and long‐term aims for unemployment relief and the reform of vocational education and training in the post‐school sector.