JET in Northern Ireland

The Northern Ireland NEETs Forum and the Department of Employment and Learning (DEL) want to improve the impact measurement and practice of organisations and interventions working with young people to reduce youth unemployment. The Journey to EmploymenT (JET) Framework for Northern Ireland was selected as a tool to help with this goal. It is an adapted version of the Journey to Employment (JET) Framework for Great Britain.

NPC worked in partnership with the Northern Ireland NEETs Forum, DEL, and Inspiring Impact Northern Ireland to add additional outcomes specific to a Northern Irish context, including perceptions of personal safety, inter-community engagement, support from family and friends, and resisting negative peer influence.

Six organisations received support from Community Evaluation Northern Ireland (CENI) to pilot the adapted framework, with a further eight organisations participating in the pilot on an unsupported basis, owing to high demand. The pilot took place from June to September 2014, after which the framework was adapted to reflect the feedback of the participating organisations.

A process report for JET Nothern Ireland

Our process report explains how we developed the JET Framework for Northern Ireland, with information on our approach, the four additional outcomes and our pilot organisations, plus feedback on the framework and our guidance on how to implement it (The JET Pack), as well as discussion of our plans for the future of JET.

 The JET model provided a tool that enabled us to explore how attitudinal/soft outcomes like confidence and self-esteem might become more readily measurable and demonstrable.

Programme participant

Next steps

The NEETs Forum are now thinking about how they can create a more systemic approach to impact. Part of this involves encouraging organisations to use a shared measurement framework. But it could also include a great deal more than this—reflecting on where there are gaps in provision, how to encourage more collaboration and talk about the value of the sector. NPC is hoping to continue our work with Inspiring Impact NI and the NEETS Forum as they enter this phase.

Future plans also include making the framework available online as an interactive tool. Organisations suggested a web-based version, with drop down menus for every stage, would make the framework easier to navigate. An online platform would simplify the process of data collection and analysis, as well as help organisations to present their results visually.

 

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