Evaluation of Career Coaching for Young People at risk of being NEET
In 2025 Birmingham City Council invested Household Support Funding into a pilot supporting young people at risk of NEET as part of earlier intervention to support the household incomes in the future. City-REDI were evaluation partners for Partnership for People and Place 2(PfPP2) programme delivered by Loconomy. PfPP2 builds on learning from a previous evaluation by City-REDI of PPfP.
PfPP2 demonstrates that early, targeted intervention can change the perspectives of young people at risk of becoming NEET.
PfPP2 provided career coaching and mentoring, group career readiness sessions and employer engagement for 102 young people identified at risk of becoming NEET(not in education, employment or training) in Year 10 in five East Birmingham secondary schools. The report describes improvements in young people sense of career direction, confidence in the future and wellbeing, understanding of alternative career pathways and potential economic savings from avoidance of young people becoming NEET.
The findings of the evaluation were presented at a roundtable on 25 June 2026 as part of Birmingham City Council’s efforts to promote learning from PfPP2; for continuous improvement and in the light of the challenge laid down in the Milburn Report on Young People and Work.
Meet the Authors
George Bramley
George joined City-REDI as a Senior Analyst in March 2018. George has significant experience in designing, managing and conducting research, evaluations and systematic reviews within government, the private sector and academia.
Hannes Read
Hannes joined City-REDI as a Policy and Data Analyst in February 2021. He has experience working on economic development research projects in local government and with business improvement districts.
Maryna Ramcharan
Maryna joined City REDI as a Senior Policy and Data Analyst in May 2022. She will continue working on the set of projects as in her previous role as a Data Analyst at the WMCA in a partnership with WMREDI. Additionally, she will contribute to research on the skills, employment and labour market economy.
Professor Anne Green
Anne Green joined the University of Birmingham as Professor of Regional Economic Development in June 2017 and currently shares the job of Co-Director with Rebecca Riley. Her research interests span employment, non-employment, regional and local labour market issues, skills strategies, urban and rural development, migration and commuting, associated policy issues and evaluation.