Youth Training - Statistical Profile 1999 to 2008

6. Participation frequency and duration

6.1 Order of placement

Between 2000 and 2008 around 53 percent of learners participating at any one time in Youth Training were participating in their first placement (not including 1999 when the programme first commenced). Table 29 shows the proportions of learners participating in each year by the order of placement. The proportion of learners placed for the first time peaked in 2006 with 56 percent of participants in first placements.

6.2 Placement frequency

Around 35 percent of learners participating at any one time in Youth Training are placed only once. Table 30 shows the proportions of learners participating in each year by the total number of placements that each learner is identified as having made throughout the whole 1999 to 2008 period.²³

Learners may be placed in the same programme more than once (including more than once in the same year), or in a succession of programmes, depending on need. Of learners active in placements in 2002, 84 percent have been placed three or fewer times throughout the coverage of the dataset. By 2008, this proportion is 88 percent. The number of learners placed twice throughout the dataset who were active in placements in 2002 was 33 percent, and this proportion increased to 40 percent in 2008 showing evidence of an increase in the frequency of placements per learner as the dataset progresses.

The proportion of learners placed once does not really shift between 2002 and 2008, remaining steady at approximately 33 percent. The proportion placed 4 or more times active in 2008 is 11 percent,  having reduced from 15 percent in 2002.

By ignoring the boundary years (that is 1999, 2000 to exclude developmental programme effects and 2007 and 2008 where active learners may be placed  in future years that have not yet occurred), and comparing instead 2001 to 2006 we are able to see a slight increase in the proportion of learners who undertake two placements (from 31.5 percent to 34.1 percent). This appears to be at the expense of learners placed in 4 or more programmes which fell from 17.5 percent in 2001 to 15.8 percent in 2006).

Around 70 percent of learners participating at any one time in Youth Training are participating in their first calendar year in the programme. This proportion is steadily decreasing. Table 31 shows the proportions of learners placed in any one year by the rank of that year in terms of their participation. This differs from the order of the placement in section 6.1 because it is the year of placement that is ranked, not the placement itself.

The vast majority (approximately 92 percent) of learners participate in Youth Training across 2 or more (not necessarily consecutive) calendar years. The proportion of learners participating in their first calendar year has fallen between 2002 to 2008 from 69 percent to 63 percent.

6.3. Placement duration

Placements on programmes are now generally for longer periods of time than in the past: the average length of placements is increasing. Table 32 shows the duration of completed placements by the year in which the placement ended. The majority of placements (78 percent) last for 24 or fewer weeks: this proportion was 82.5 for placements ending in 2001 and 68 percent for placements ending in 2008. Looking at it another way, there has been a large increase in the proportion of placements lasting for 25 weeks or longer, from 17 percent of the total number of placements ending in 2001 to 32 percent in 2008.

6.4 Total average duration

Table 33 shows the average total number of trainee weeks per learner by their first start year. Leaving a margin of two years to allow for learners active for the first time in 2007 and 2008 (and assuming that learners participate in Youth Training in consecutive years rather than in non-consecutive blocks), the average total number of trainee weeks per learner in total has increased between 1999 and 2006 from 27 to 34 weeks. There does not appear to be any major differences between the different participating ethnic and gender groups.

Footnote

23. this is necessarily limited by the timeframe of the dataset. Learner whose first placement occurs towards the end of this period may be placed subsequent to 2008.