The trial will evaluate the impact of receiving the IntoTech programme on students’ attitudes, perceived barriers, knowledge and behaviours related to tech. Learning from the evaluation will inform the development of the programme to maximise its impact.
All Year 8 students (in 2025/26 academic year) will have access to tech-focused inspirational talks, selected Year 9 students (in 2026/27 academic year) will have access to tech-focused employer insight days, and selected Year 10 students (in academic year 2027/28) will have access to tech-focused work experience. Pupils involved in Years 9 and 10 will also access online mentoring provided by Brightside.
To be eligible to take part, your school must:
- Be a state-maintained secondary schools in England with a Year 8 cohort in 2025/26.
- Have a pupil free school meals average of 15% or above.
- Be willing to be randomly assigned to with an intervention or control group and complete all evaluation activities.
Within schools assigned to the intervention group, inspirational talks will be open to all students in Year 8, whilst the insight days and work experience in Years 9 and 10 will be targeted at disadvantaged students (50 and 20 students respectively)
This is a Randomised Controlled trial (RCT). Schools will be randomly allocated to either the intervention group (which will take part in the IntoTech programme) or a control group (which will follow their usual practice in terms of careers education relating to tech).
All schools
Teachers in all schools will be required to administer a short online survey to their Year 8 students in autumn 2025, exploring their attitudes, knowledge and behaviours relating to the tech industry. Schools will then be randomised into either the intervention or control group, prior to the programme being delivered in intervention schools. The same survey will then be administered by NFER Test Administrators in all schools at the end of the programme when students are in Year 10.
All participating schools (intervention and control) will be required to share a range of data on student characteristics that will be collected via the ImpactEd Evaluation School Impact Platform (SIP) to support project delivery.
Intervention schools only
Intervention schools will be asked to provide data on student participation via the ImpactEd Evaluation School Impact Platform (SIP). The ImpactEd SIP will also host surveys for intervention staff and students to complete pre- and post- programme activities.
All schools (intervention and control) will receive a thank-you payment of £500 upon completing all trial-related activities.
The evaluation will take place between September 2025 and July 2028.
Please contact the Futures for All project coordinator at [email protected].
For further information about the IntoTech programme, please contact the Futures for All project coordinator at [email protected].
NFER is responsible for the day-to-day management of the trial. Please contact the evaluation team at [email protected] if you have any questions about the evaluation.
