September 2018 - May 2019, BGI Consulting carried out the evaluation of the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of EU investments and Youth Employment Initiative, including the implementation of Youth Guarantees Initiative. The evaluation was commissioned by the Ministry of Social Security and Labour of the Republic of Lithuania.

 

The primary goal of this evaluation was to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of EU investments and specially appropriated measure of Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) with the purpose to report back to the European Commission and improve implementation of future interventions in youth employment area.

 

The main object of this evaluation was the two mentioned measures funded by the EU structural funds and YEI special appropriation fund – measure “Youth Employment Enhancement” (07.4.1-ESFA-V-404)  and its funded projects “Find Yourself” and “The New Start” and planned activities of the measure “Youth Employment Enhancement (II)” (07.4.1-ESFA-V-414) implementing the OP’s Priority Axis 7 “Promoting Quality Employment and Participation in the Labor Market”, Specific Objective 7.4.1 “Reduce the number of young people between 15 and 29 years of age not in employment, education or training”. However, given the purposes of this evaluation, the primary evaluative priority was given to the analysis of the measure “Youth Employment Enhancement” (07.4.1-ESFA-V-404) and its projects “Find Yourself” and “The New Start”. The following summary, therefore, presents conclusions of the evaluation analysis of the mentioned measure and its projects.

 

The evaluation of effectiveness, efficiency, and impact of EU investments and YEI was premised on the theory of change. The main premises of the model were assessed using the collected data. The latter allowed to assess whether the necessary conditions were created (whether resources were used appropriately, efficiently, effectively and created a long-lasting impact) in order to achieve the intermediary results and this way attain the final goal of the intervention.

 

Data was collected using various data-collecting and analysis methods – analysis of academic literature and relevant legislation, SFMIS, data available on www.esinvesticijos.lt, data provided by LLE, surveys of six targeted groups (coordinators of the projects “Find Yourself’ and “The New Start”, mentors of Youth volunteering agency, participants of activities of both projects and directors of DYA partner organizations) and comprised a sample of 5086 respondents, 6 semi-structured interviews with 7 stakeholders, 5 case studies of municipalities that involved 21 interviews, cost-effectiveness analysis, 3 case studies of similar projects in other countries and analysis of depersonalized data of 43 605 participants which was provided by SSIFB.

 

The assessment defined the picture of a typical participant in JUI interventions. It is an unemployed person (up to 6 months) aged between 18 and 25 years and with secondary education or secondary education and professional qualification, not belonging to social risk groups. The quality of services provided through youth employment projects was good but not sufficiently complex to address the challenges faced by only a part of NEETs. Most of the jobs where participants started working after participating in project activities met the minimum criteria for a quality workplace. In turn, most of the learning and traineeships found by the participants after participating in the project activities were also of good quality and had a significant benefit for the participants in their later integration into the labor market. In the short and medium-term, the survival rates of participants in YEI interventions are high, but in the long term, only one third to half of all those who have taken part in post-participation or self-employed activities remain in the labor market. Unemployed participants who are ready for the labor market are most stable in the labor market.

 

The final evaluation report also contains conclusions and recommendations on the logic, effectiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the YEI interventions.