6x Faster: What Benchmarking Tells Us About Essential Skills Growth at Envision

In partnership with dmh Associates and Skills Builder Partnership, we took part in an external benchmarking evaluation to understand how our young people’s progress compares to those who have not participated in our programme.  

The results were clear: Envision’s young people made Essential Skills progress at a rate six times faster than what’s typically seen in mainstream education settings. 

Key findings from the report: 

• On average, young people on our programme made a 0.1 gain in Essential Skills (on a 0-1 scale ), especially in Creativity. 
  
  
• These gains were six times greater than those made by students in Years 11 – 13 across England, as measured by Skills Builder Partnership data. 
  
  
• Our progress is comparable to other top-tier, targeted programmes like the Skills Builder Partnership Accelerator. 
  
  
• The evaluation used Skills Builder Partnership’s national data set to create comparison groups, adjusting for differences in gender, age, and baseline skill levels. 

This evaluation was only possible thanks to our deep alignment with the Skills Builder Universal Framework. By embedding it at the heart of our outcomes framework and curriculum, we can measure progress consistently, transparently and with real meaning. 

“For those aiming to improve life chances of young people from less-advantaged backgrounds, these findings have a strong message: essential skills can be developed with intention and rigour.” – Dr Chris Percy, dmh Associates 

Why this matters:

These findings are a strong reminder that Essential Skills can be developed purposefully and with rigour. For those of us working to create a world where success in school, work, and life isn’t a privilege for a minority, but a fundamental right for every young person, this is a crucial takeaway. 

We’re proud to see the results of our approach, but we’re also committed to continuing to learn and improve. This is why we are continuing our work with dmh Associates this year, running a second benchmarking evaluation. 

Want to hear more? The webinar below provides a comprehensive understanding of Envision’s impact journey and discussions around how so-called “soft skills” can be developed and measured with rigour. 

You can also read the full evaluation here!