Educational Pathways Program Evaluation

This is the final report for the evaluation of the Educational Pathways Program (EPP). The EPP is a direct intervention program designed to support Years 9–12 public high school students. Its objectives are to:

• support students to remain in education and/or transition into employment and training, and
• better understand the career pathways available to them.

The EPP was piloted in 2020–21. It consisted of 10 initiatives in 24 NSW Public Secondary Schools. After an evaluation in 2021 a revised and scaled-up version of the EPP was implemented in 2022 in 145 Public Secondary Schools, increasing to 148 schools across NSW; this represents 37% of the 403 secondary schools in NSW (DoE, 2023). The number of schools in the EPP has expand to 171 in 2024.

This final report presents findings from the evaluation of the Educational Pathways Program funded by the New South Wales Department of Education. The findings from focus groups and interviews with stakeholders (qualitative data) indicate that the Educational Pathways Program (EPP) has been beneficial for participating schools and for individual students (and their parents/carers).