Policies to assist with job search and training have evolved substantially over the last two decades. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) of the 1980's gave way to a succession of job search assistance programs (including Modern Apprenticeships, Individual Learning Accounts and various New Deal programmes).

Evaluation studies in a variety of countries and experimental settings appear to suggest that job search assistance and job placement policies appear more effective than training programmes in promoting employment, raising wages and improving career progression. Why is this so? Might other active labour market policies be more effective in this regard, or more efficient? Can policy-makers learn from the experience of youth training programmes in ways that might lead to improvements in future policy design?