Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Evaluating the outcome of employment enhancement programmes for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET): does organisational type affect delivery?

Denny, S., Hazenberg, R. and Seddon, F. A. (2011) Evaluating the outcome of employment enhancement programmes for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET): does organisational type affect delivery? Paper presented to: 3rd International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC), South Bank University, London, 12-13 September 2011. (Unpublished)

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Abstract: As work-integration social enterprises (WISEs) become providers of programmes that aim to improve the employability of socially disadvantaged groups, performance evaluation becomes an issue they must address in order to both justify their current funding and to help secure future funding. There is growing pressure on WISEs to improve their performance evaluation processes by ensuring evaluation is based in social science concepts rather than ‘common sense’ notions of improvements that lack rigor in their measurement. The ongoing research reported in this paper builds upon work conducted in a prior pilot study and reveals the NEET perspective of engagement in two employment enhancement programmes (EEPs), one provided by a WISE situated in the East Midlands, the other by a work-integration private enterprise (WIPE) company situated in Birmingham. The research adopted an intervention methodology involving a total of 106 participants, from both WISE and WIPE completing questionnaires at Time 1 (T1) and 49 participants at Time2 (T2) (24 from the WISE and 25 from the WIPE). In order to provide a rigorous outcome measure, in addition to eliciting the participant perspective, all participants completed General Self-efficacy (GSE) questionnaires and a random sample engaged in individual semi-structured interviews with researchers before and after engagement in their respective programmes (15 from the WISE and 6 from the WIPE). Results from the qualitative analysis of the interviews and the statistical analysis of the questionnaire data are triangulated to evaluate the outcome from both programmes, providing the participant perspective alongside changes in GSE. The results from the two programmes provided an opportunity to compare and contrast programmes delivered by a WISE and a WIPE in order to give an insight into differences between the programmes based on the orientation of the delivery organisation
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD60 Social responsibility of business
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology > HV1421 Young adults. Youth. Teenagers
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD6270 Youth employment
H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5381 Vocational guidance. Career development
Creators: Denny, Simon, Hazenberg, Richard and Seddon, Frederick A
Northamptonshire and East Midlands: Social Issues
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Group > Centre for Entrepreneurship, Enterprise and Governance
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Group > Social Enterprise Research Group
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Research Centre > Institute for Social Innovation and Impact
Research Institutes > Institute for Social Innovation and Impact
Date: 12 September 2011
Date Type: Presentation
Event Title: 3rd International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC)
Event Dates: 12-13 September 2011
Event Location: South Bank University, London
Event Type: Conference
Language: English
Status: Unpublished
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/4581

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