Evaluation of Skills Gateway for Adults: mid-programme evaluation

It was intended to identify the needs of an individual and provide advice and guidance on how to access the appropriate support to meet those needs.

The evaluation aimed to establish the effectiveness and efficiency of the Skills Gateway for Adults in:

• facilitating access to employment and skills support for individuals
• identifying lessons learned to support the development
• improvement of the service.

Main findings

• The Skills Gateway for Adults is generally a well-managed and delivered service that is meeting or exceeding its output targets.
• The evaluation showed that Skills Gateway for Adults has been successful in building a strong degree of support from delivery staff and a strong sense of engagement and self-efficacy (from clients in identifying improvements themselves from the engagement).
• There was inconsistency in approaches to tracking and follow-up. It is acknowledged by the evaluation team that post-engagement tracking is the hardest element of the service to deliver consistently by its very nature since clients may fall out of contact or not return calls, etc.