Onwards and upwards: enabling and tracking progression for young musicians

Youth Music has published a new report on the progression of young musicians following the end of a funded project.

This report examines post-project progression routes being facilitated by the organisations we fund and others in the sector, as well as their experiences of tracking young participants’ progression following the end of a project. It does this by drawing together analysis of quantitative and qualitative evaluation data submitted by grantholders, as well as presenting findings of an additional survey undertaken with members of the workforce in the music education sector.

Through this analysis, we have found that young participants of music-making projects are progressing on to a number of different opportunities: they are accessing other musical and cultural opportunities, engaging or re-engaging with education in music and other subjects, and entering into valuable employment and training opportunities. Organisations are undertaking a wide variety of activities to facilitate this, and through our research we have found that effective progression outcomes can often be put down to mentoring and bespoke learning plans for young people, as well as nurturing strong cross-organisational relationships to facilitate the creation of successful progression routes. The report also identifies where organisations are experiencing challenges, and explores issues such as tracking participants’ journeys following the end of a funded project, and articulating exactly how participants have been supported to progress.

If you have comments or questions about this report, or if you would like to contribute to any further discussions on progression, then please get in contact with Katy Robinson (Research & Evaluation Officer) at katharine.robinson@youthmusic.org.uk