Purpose
A sector chosen by the participant gives learning direction and work genuine relevance.
THE OUTCOME
PEOPLE WITHPURPOSE.
Young people building confidence, independence and capability through work that matters.
PURPOSE→CAPABILITY→PAID WORK→CONTRIBUTION
A generation should be recognised for what it can contribute, not reduced to the statistic used to describe it.
Each participant chooses a sector, develops practical capability against real organisational needs, then receives continued learning and expert support for two years.
Paid work begins the change, but its value reaches further. Confidence becomes independence, capability becomes contribution, and progress strengthens the people, organisations and communities around it.
HOW VALUE GROWS
One opportunity can begin a working lifetime.
Capability
Practical learning responds to needs already identified inside organisations, creating usefulness from the outset.
Continuity
Two years of continued learning and expert support help early progress become lasting capability.
One opportunity can strengthen a person, an organisation and the country's capacity to move forward.
THE VALUE IN NUMBERS
Start with 10,000 people.
The model starts with 10,000 people moving into paid work. Current DWP benchmarks then show the lifetime value at the 100,000-person example level.
PROJECT COST OVER THREE YEARS£7.8m
PEOPLE INTO PAID WORK10,000THE STARTING POINT
THE OVERALL VALUE
At 100,000 people, lifetime value reaches £2.9bn and £5.2bn.
Applied across the 100,000-person example, DWP's public-finance benchmark produces the £2.9bn lifetime measure shown here.
The same calculation produces £5.2bn through DWP's published earnings benchmark.
DWP publishes both benchmarks for people aged 18 to 24 as lifetime measures. The £2.9bn and £5.2bn figures remain separate and must not be added together.
Source: DWP Young People and Work interim report, August 2026
THE VALUE THAT LASTS
When potential gains direction, progress travels further than one person.
Paid employment, continued learning and two years of expert support help participants keep developing after the initial training has finished.
That continuing movement represents the programme's deeper human outcome. People gain confidence and independence, organisations gain useful capability, and the country gains more people able to shape its future.
THE FULL BASIS
Read the detailed report behind the figures shown here.
The detailed report contains the programme, supporting evidence and full basis for the AAAnow value model. It also separates measured annual return from longer-term government benchmarks.
Download the detailed reportPDF