The evaluation report for this project is delayed due to data access issues. We will update the publication date on this webpage as soon as we have an estimate of when the report will be completed. 

Community Apprentice facilitates young people to generate their own ideas for tackling social problems, which they then implement. Past examples have included projects on gang crime and teenage mental health issues. The projects are then assessed as part of an interschool competition, with young people having to demonstrate transferrable skills to win.

All projects include a fundraising element and the project lasts for 15 weeks and includes 30 contact hours with a trained Envision coach and a volunteer from a local business. Local business volunteers provide four workshops and mentoring. This element is arranged by Envision and all mentors are trained and session material is provided.

This project is being funded as part of a partnership between EEF, the Careers and Enterprise Company and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The programme has previously been tested through a randomised controlled trial with promising results for character outcomes. This project will further develop the evidence base about the programme and look at whether it can also impact on academic outcomes.

A team from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), led by Michael Sanders, will undertake the evaluation of the programme, which will be structured as a pupil-level randomised controlled efficacy trial.

Envision will recruit 30 schools and eligible pupils within these schools will be randomised to either receive the intervention or act as part of a business as usual control group. 13 pupils from each school will receive the intervention as part of this trial.

Character outcomes, looking at resilience and self-efficacy, will be assessed at the end of the first year of the project and when the pupils are in Year 10. The impact on GCSE outcomes at the end of the second year of the project will then be looked at.

An accompanying implementation and process evaluation will assess the quality of the intervention and its ability to be delivered with fidelity