As part of the NYEB approach to building evidence, planning has begun evaluation from now into 2027. The first step was looking at what we’d learnt so far. The first step was to review and summarise learning that has already been collated through various evaluative efforts over the past four years, which includes contributions from over 195 stakeholders who have engaged with the NYEB in some way.
This report provides a synthesis of the findings from six evaluation reports between 2018-2024 and suggests ways in which they should inform future strategic, operational and evaluative processes to further the NYEB mission to drive systems change to enable young people to have decent and meaningful careers while supporting the needs of employers and local communities.
The key questions asked:
- What were the key milestones and phases of the NYEB’s development, including high-level internal and external drivers?
- What developmental and outcomes evaluations have taken place at each phase of the NYEB, what was the methodology, what have been the key findings for the model, practice and outcomes, and how were they shared with stakeholders?
Key points
Headline finding 1:
NYEB capability, especially support to prioritise, plan and strengthen place-based action, is being built through the Enabling Organisation (EO). All evaluations discuss the important capability-building role of the EO, predominately focusing on what is required for the NYEB to function and progress. There is less evidence from evaluations on how well the EO is currently performing these functions. This could be explored further in future evaluations.
Headline finding 2:
The NYEB governance structures are enabling collaboration between stakeholders that can strengthen place-based employment systems. Evaluations of the NYEB suggest that the governance structures are enabling collaboration with community organisations, employers and young people and are strengthening as the initiative matures.
Headline finding 3:
A place-to-population focus is a priority for the NYEB to ensure that local-to-national feedback loops inform national reform. Evaluations found that taking a local-to-national approach was a priority for all NYEB stakeholders. While challenges to the effectiveness of this approach exist, the governance model was often able to provide a useful local-to-national feedback loop.
Headline finding 4:
Building evidence should be prioritised to facilitate learning and strengthen NYEB operations and outcomes. Only one evaluation explicitly referred to ‘creating and building evidence’ within the NYEB. As of 2024 this is one of the NYEB’s key practice approaches and, as such, is an area that requires further development. This will ensure that systematic learning processes are in place to make sense of data, capture outcomes, value storytelling, translate and share knowledge, contribute to feedback loops and evaluations, monitor progress and use lessons learnt to adapt to conditions as they unfold.
Questions? Email Louise Mooney, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Lead, louise.mooney@bsl.org.au or Eliza Cotton, Research Officer, eliza.cotton@bsl.org.au