5 key learnings from our 2024 Impact Report
👎 The need isn’t going away
Our annual Impact Report is a proud celebration of the impact we had in 2024, and a testament to the resilience and determination of the young people whose experiences are at its centre.
But as we celebrate these achievements, it’s clear there is a long way to go.
The first draft of our 2024 Impact Report cited the fact there were an estimated 946,000 young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the UK. When it later came to publishing, the Office for National Statistics had revised, and increased, this estimate to 987,000. That’s nearly one in seven 16-24-year-olds.
Despite our committed efforts, and the significant contributions of our supporters, partners and funders, the problem of youth unemployment is on the rise, with today's young generation reporting feeling chronically anxious and under-equipped for the jobs market.
Yes, we’re proud of our impact in 2024. But we know there’s a long way to go, which is why we’re also making bold plans for the future.
There are now an estimated nearly one million young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) in the UK, and the need for intervention has never been greater. The UK’s young people have enormous potential to thrive, but they can only do this with the right support. I am hugely proud to lead an organisation so committed to delivering that support, and to continually measuring, proving and improving its impact. - Iona Ledwidge, Chief Executive
✅ The Spear Programme is (still) effective
In 2024, the Spear Programme coached 1,169 young people with the skills and resilience they need to find and sustain employment, through 17 local partners across the UK.
93% of those who completed our classic model of Spear remained in touch with us a year after the foundation phase of the programme, meaning we have huge confidence in our data that shows three quarters not only found work, but remained there a year later. 176 trainees were placed in work or training through our own Employer Partners.
Rigorous eternal evaluation also strengthens our evidence base, and proves definitively that the Spear Programme is effective at helping young people like John access the labour market.
🚦 Reaching more young people will require some changes
Youth unemployment is getting worse, and we know Spear is a solution that works. We have therefore set ambitions plans to accelerate the growth of Spear nationally, to ensure it’s available to more young people who most need its support.
To help us achieve this goal, we have launched a lower-dosage and lower-cost ‘streamlined’ version of Spear, that will be more accessible to local partners in areas that face significant deprivation. In 2024, we continued to gather the necessary data to help us assess the effectiveness and early outcomes of this streamlined model... spoiler alert: they’re looking positive.
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At the end of 2024 we also took the hard decision to cease our Resurgo Consultancy business, in order to best enable us to refocus our energies on growing Spear’s reach.
Designing a new model of our flagship programme and ceasing operation of another are big operational changes for us – but we're not afraid of change when it helps us achieve our core aims.
📈 Processes improve when you’re not precious about them
We don’t settle for doing things because ‘that’s how we always have’.
Central to the way we operate and how we manage our impact is our openness to feedback, and willingness to interrogate our own processes with a view to improving them.
In 2024 we paid particularly close attention to our Work-Ready Indicators (WRIs) – how we measure if our Spear trainees are actually ready for work.
We noticed that our numerical scale, though well embedded in our teams, was resulting in discrepancies across our Spear Centres. So, over the course of ten months, we completed a thorough review and overhaul, resulting in a new scale that we’re confident is truly predictive of our trainees’ employment outcomes.
It can be hard to admit when your own processes aren’t quite fit for purpose, and it takes time to reach fitting solutions, but it’s worth it.
Our commitment to learning and impact measurement will be a crucial part of our ambitious plans to grow the reach of the Spear Programme. - Pete Bacon, Director of Impact and Partnerships
🌍 Youth unemployment is a society problem, and will require a ‘society solution’
You’d be forgiven for considering the ‘thank you’ pages of a report like this as an afterthought. But rather than being uninspiring or drab, we consider these pages, displaying row upon row of organisations’ logos, to be the opposite.
They serve as testament to many hundreds of individuals, working for dozens of organisations, who not only share our belief in young people’s potential, but show it, through hiring diverse young talent, volunteering their time, and committing their financial support.
None of our work would be possible without the contributions of businesses, churches, Trusts and individuals across the UK who are committed to playing their part in tackling youth unemployment. When society comes together in this way, we believe we really can make a difference to young people in 2025.