Educational Pathways Pilot Program Final Evaluation Report

This report provides an external evaluation conducted by Western Sydney University and funded by the NSW Department of Education, of the Educational Pathways Pilot Program (EPPP). The NSW Department of Education describes the EPPP as an innovative program designed to improve further education and career outcomes for young people. It consists of 10 unique pilots. These were trialled in 24 high schools in South West Sydney (n = 15) and on the North Coast (n = 9) of NSW in 2020. The evaluation was informed by quantitative and qualitative sources of data. Surveys were conducted to capture the experiences and views of all stakeholder groups including students (n = 1,129 for the 10 pilots), parents/carers (n= 40), educators (n= 123), training organisations (n= 21) and businesses/employers (n= 26). Interviews with all stakeholder groups (n = 134) and various NSW Department of Education datasets were used to examine the implementation of the EPPP and informed five in-depth case studies. The case-studies served to provide a contextualised understanding of the perceived value of the pilots and the factors that impacted upon implementation. An accompanying cost-benefit analysis drew from both the survey and case study findings to assess the benefits and costs for each of the EPPP pilots. The evaluation reports on the: 1. views and experiences of all key stakeholders; 2. outlines the EPPP intervention related benefits; and 3. identifies the strengths and areas for improvement to inform future delivery and scalability for the pilots.