Evaluation of the Careers and Enterprise Fund


Client: The Careers and Enterprise Company

The Careers and Enterprise Company was established in 2015 with a remit to prepare young people better for the world of work, through increased encounters with employers whilst in education. This is based on evidence that young adults who recall four or more encounters with employers whilst at school are more likely to believe that they have a good idea of the knowledge and skills needed for the jobs they want to do and are less likely to become NEET.

The Company launched the first Careers and Enterprise Fund in December 2015, which supported activities aimed at delivering employer encounters for young people during the 2016/17 academic year. A total of £5.6m was awarded to separate providers to deliver 35 distinct programmes of activity. The awards were targeted at successful, proven programmes that were able to address clear needs and identified gaps in existing provision at a local level.  

SQW was commissioned to evaluate the 2015 Careers and Enterprise Fund. This was first and foremost a formative exercise, designed to help the Company and wider stakeholders and partners understand what works, what best practice looked like and what the potential for impact was across the range of initiatives being supported through the Fund.

The Company has published the final evaluation report for the 2015 Careers and Enterprise Fund, as well as a response to this – both documents are available to download here.

We continue to work with the Careers and Enterprise Company and are currently evaluating the 2016 Careers and Enterprise Fund and the Mentoring Fund, as well as the Enterprise Adviser Network. For any queries relating to our evaluation work for the Company, please contact Marian Morris.