Disentangling the impact of active labour market programs

A component network meta-analysis
Network Meta Analysis
Youth Employment
Active Labour Market Programs

Project summary

About

This ongoing project supports the development of Youth Futures Foundation’s (YFF) Youth Employment Toolkit by analysing the impact of individual components of active labour market programs (ALMPs) on young people’s employment outcomes in high-income countries. The Toolkit seeks to provide evidence-informed guidance on policy and practice to improve youth employment outcomes — read more about it here.

A major challenge in understanding what works in youth employment programs is the complexity of ALMPs, which often include multiple active components. For example, a program targeting young people not in education, employment, or training might combine job search assistance, basic skills training, employment coaching, and off-the-job technical training. Traditional meta-analytic methods typically evaluate these interventions as single, discrete entities, limiting the ability to assess the impact of individual components.

To address this, we employed component network meta-analysis (NMA). This approach allows us to disentangle the effects of individual program components and their combinations, providing Toolkit users with actionable insights into the comparative effectiveness of different approaches — insights that go beyond what can be achieved through standard meta-analyses or regression frameworks.

I began this project when I was at the Centre for Evidence and Implementation and have continued to work on it since moving to Monash University. The project is has been undertaken in stages:

  • Stage 1 (2021-2023) — informed the first iteration of YFF’s Youth Employment Toolkit. It involved undertaking two rapid evidence assessments, including:
    • A component network meta-analysis (NMA) of ‘employment and skills programs’ — this also formed part of my PhD research.
    • A meta-analysis of wage subsidies on employment and education outcomes for participants.
  • Stage 2 (2024-current) — is informing an expanded version of the Toolkit. It involves:
    • Broadening the scope of the NMA to analyse all active components of ALMPs.
    • Expanding the search strategy to include recently published evidence.
    • Exploring additional outcomes relevant to youth employment.

We are interested in expanding the scope and accessibility of our analysis in future stages.

Funding

This project is funded by the Youth Futures Foundation.

Team

This project is a collaboration between researchers from Monash University, the Centre for Evidence and Implementation, the Institute for Employment Studies and the HEDCO Institute for Evidence-based Educational Practice at the Univeristy of Oregon.

Research output

This project is in progress, some output from this project is open access and available online.

Technical reports

Stage 1

Taylor, D., Featherston, R., Ott, E., Rowland, J., Newton, B., & Shlonsky, A. (2023). A network meta-analysis of employment and skills programmes and interventions designed to assist young people to enter the labour market in high income countries: Technical Report. Youth Futures Foundation, London. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.32461.82406

Conference Presentations

Stage 1

Taylor, D., Featherston, R., & Ott, E. (2023, October). Using network meta-analysis to inform an evidence toolkit of employment interventions for disadvantaged youth [Conference presentation]. Evidence and Implementation Summit, Melbourne, Australia.

Preregistration

Stage 2

Taylor, D., Featherston, R., Tanner-Smith, E., Newton, B., Nancarrow, A., Ott, E. Rowland, J., Pemovska, T. & Shlonsky, A. (2024). Active labour market programs for young people in high-income countries: a component network meta analysis [Registration]. OSF. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/DBFKR

Stage 1

Ott, E., Taylor, D. Rowland, J., Nancarrow, A., Newton, B., Featherston, R., & Shlonsky, A. (2022). A network meta-analysis of employment and skills programmes and interventions designed to assist young people to enter the labour market in high income countries [Registration]. OSF. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/J63QT

Blogs

Stage 1

Taylor, D., & Ott, E. (2023, April 19). Understanding what works to improve employment outcomes for young people using a network meta-analysis. Youth Futures Foundation. Retrieved June 2, 2024, from https://youthfuturesfoundation.org/news/understanding-what-works-to-improve-employment-outcomes-for-young-people-using-a-network-meta-analysis/