L&W carried out an independent evaluation of Centre for Ageing Better’s Elevate pilot. Elevate targeted people aged 50 years or over living or working in the West Midlands who were at risk of redundancy or had recently been made redundant.

Our research aimed to explore the extent to which the pilot supported participants to find, or move closer to, sustained employment. This included exploring whether taking part in the programme changed the attitudes of participants toward job search and whether it had a positive effect on their job-seeking skills and knowledge of how to look for work in the short and medium term.

The pilot failed to recruit its targeted number of participants, which makes it difficult to reach generalisable conclusions on the impact of Elevate. However, for the 16 individuals who completed the course, we found that Elevate had helped improve their job-search, CV writing and interview skills. Participants also felt more confident to explore new career options and apply for work.