Paying young people to learn - does it work?

The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) was designed to encourage more young people from lower-income households to participate in post-compulsory education. This has been extended to other groups of young people, most notably those who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) or in jobs without training (JWT). This paper presents some key findings from an evaluation of the EMA pilots and some emerging policy developments following the national implementation of the EMA policy initiative, including the piloting of Activity and Learning Agreements, which are designed to encourage young people in the NEET and JWT groups back into learning in return for financial and intensive support packages. It concludes with a discussion about the extent to which offering all eligible young people financial support, will be enough to achieve the Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) agenda.