Assessing the Effectiveness of In-School Workshops on Youth Application and Onboarding Rates for the SuccessLink Summer Jobs Program

Hitanshu Pandit, Josh Lown, Samiksha Bhatnagar, Northeastern University

Policy Brief 2024-5

May 2025

During the summer of 2024, the Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity (YEO) partnered with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) to provide a targeted two-step intervention designed to increase both job application and hiring rates among 9th- and 10th-grade students, with a particular emphasis on supporting youth of color. Comparing students in the targeted schools to those in similarly situated schools, I find that summer job applications were 7 percentage points higher in treated versus non-treated schools during summer 2024 and increased by 8% in treated schools compared to the previous year. Most notably, Hispanic or Latino students showed a statistically significant improvement in job application rates of 39% in the treated schools compared to 28% in the non-treatment schools. In addition, a higher proportion of youth applied to three or more jobs in the treated schools (29%) compared to the non-treatment schools (21%), but this difference was not statistically significant. Overall, the workshops provided critical support to youth in navigating the City’s new job application and hiring platforms by guiding students through the application process to address key barriers that often hinder student participation.

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