Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, many education and employment programmes have switched to online delivery. As we look to a future where many such programmes will retain at least some element of online or hybrid delivery, we need to consider the impacts on different groups, address the challenges, and identify what works.

In October 2020, EY Foundation moved several of its key youth employability programmes online. The programmes offer young people a paid work experience placement, employability training and mentoring.

We were commissioned to review the impact of the move to online delivery on different groups of young people, identify effective practice to inform the future delivery of youth employability programmes. Conducted between October 2020 and June 2021, the evaluation is amongst the earliest of its kind.

This report looks at what worked well, the outcomes for young people, and key lessons and implications for the future. It highlights the effectiveness of different activities and support delivered by EY Foundation and how challenges were overcome, the outcomes achieved by different groups of young people, and concludes with the key lessons learned for ongoing programme delivery for EY Foundation and other youth employability programmes.