From the Ground Up: Exploring how youth work creates opportunities for young people to engage with education, employment and training

Led by ARK members Alexandra Chapman and Ciara Fitzpatrick, this new study will run throughout 2026, and explore how youth work creates opportunities for young people to engage with education, employment and training.

Funded by EPIC Futures NI, the project involves collaboration with the YouthStart Consortium (Youth Action NI, NI Youth Forum, Include Youth, Springboard, The King’s Trust, Start 360 and Bytes).

It seeks to develop a holistic understanding of how and why young people become disengaged from employment, education or training through their lived experience, using a qualitative participatory methodology. Capturing and understanding young people’s disengagement from employment and education is integral to informing effective, tailored policy interventions. 

The work will take an innovative methodological approach, where six ‘Young Experts’ will facilitate focus groups with their peers across Northern Ireland. 

The research team comprises:

  • Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick (Ulster University)
  • Dr Alexandra Chapman (Ulster University)
  • Dr Anne Devlin (Economist, ESRI)
  • Dr Karen Orr (T-REX Shared Island North-South Director)
  • Sara Haller (Include Youth)

In addition, a project Advisory Group comprises academic experts and civil servants who specialise in research with and about young people, young unemployment and deprivation.

 

 

For more information on this project, please contact:
Ciara Fitzpatrick c.fitzpatrick@ulster.ac.uk
Alexandra Chapman a.chapman1@ulster.ac.uk