Midterm review of the NWO program 'Upscaling PPPs'.

The National Growth Fund programme 'Scaling up Public-Private Partnerships in Vocational Education' aims to strengthen and scale proven public-private partnerships (PPP) to reduce the gap between education and the labour market and thereby contribute to societal transitions. The High Impact PPPs (HIPs) bring together multiple PPPs and focus on expanding existing offerings to new target groups and/or developing new offerings. The National Growth Fund finances 210 million euros out of a total budget of 506 million euros. At the request of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Dialogic conducted a midterm review. This evaluation provides insights into the progress made towards goals, milestones, and KPIs, and offers input for the next phase of the programme. The publication on the government website can be found here.

General assessment

The midterm review shows that the programme is largely on track and the proverbial signals are green, as the allocated resources have been effectively and efficiently utilised. Some elements are performing above expectations. The programme leads to the scaling up of PPP activities for companies, employees, students, educational institutions, and local/regional governments. Key benefits of the HIPs include:

• Integrated approach in educational development
• Central point of contact for the business sector --> better matching of education to labour market needs
• Economies of scale in joint communication and collaboration in projects

Effectiveness

• Three out of four interim goals have been (largely) achieved: involved companies, employees for Lifelong Learning, and students with PPP experience.
• Only co-financing falls short (37 million euros out of 50 million euros), but is expected to increase in the coming years.
• HIPs have achieved results that individual PPPs could not have reached without a scaling-up programme, such as better integration of vocational and higher education programmes, new collaborations, and knowledge sharing.

Efficiency

• 69.1 million euros of the budgeted 73.3 million euros were realised in the first year.
• Funds were allocated across five action lines: innovating vocational practice, context-rich infrastructure, talent development, strengthening chains and ecosystems, and Lifelong Learning.
• It is challenging to make exact comparisons between activities due to the diversity of sub-goals and intensity of collaboration.

Process & governance

• The governance structure with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, PTvT, and RVO is effective.
• HIPs value peer reviews and joint sessions.
• Initial challenges such as unclear subsidy frameworks and double accountability have been constructively resolved.
• Administrative burdens are substantial but overall positively assessed by those involved.

Recommendations

	Recommendations ... for the strategy and tactics of the programme 1. Determine the extent to which you want to focus on scaling up reach and scaling up impact. 2. Create a clear Lifelong Learning proposition for the HIPs. 3. Establish sustainability models for the HIPs, also at a HIP-transcending level such as Katapult. ... for the operational execution of the programme 4. Find ways for HIPs to exchange knowledge and experiences with lower time investment among themselves. 5. Focus in the upcoming period on sharpening and quantifying the economic and societal impact of the programme. 6. Invest more as Katapult and HIPs in the broader integration of the 'new relationship' between education and the labour market in the digital infrastructure. 7. Explore further possibilities to reduce administrative burdens for HIPs, for example by further streamlining communication from/with RVO and Katapult and by further improving the monitoring process.