Channeling Motivation - How intrinsic and internalised motivation can support new pathways for young people from low-income backgrounds to thrive in a rapidly changing world of work

We are in the middle of a series of interconnected, structural transformations of the economy, of society and of work itself. The insights from this report are focused on how young people – especially those from low-income backgrounds – can better navigate them. This report represents the culmination of Stage 2 of the Motivating Futures project, a collaboration between the Institute for the Future of Work (IFOW) and the EY Foundation (EYF). The focus is on how young people from low-income backgrounds can be supported to develop and sustain forms of motivation that will help them to thrive in a rapidly changing world of work. It seeks to inform better narratives on how we think about careers guidance and employment support (including funding and policy priorities), and proposes an architecture for ‘youth pathways’ to deliver this that could inform new pilot projects to directly help young people as they transition beyond school towards work. The work package includes this report, a Part 2 report focusing on the evaluation of the pilot intervention we designed and tested through the summer of 2025, plus a Framework and exemplar resources for use by those looking to design lessons or workshop programmes based on this research. Motivation is a critical but often overlooked component of attainment, health and happiness, in school, work and wider life – one that, we believe, is worthy of far greater emphasis as it could not only address the increasing numbers of young people at risk of becoming ‘NEET’ (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and in the NEET category, but also improve rates of school absence, help fill in skills shortages and - ultimately - build towards better productivity and growth. In a labour market seeing rapid technological change, the case for a focus on motivation is becoming more urgent. This is because internal and intrinsic forms of motivation support the cultivation of skills such as problem-solving, communication and creative thinking – as well as personal resilience, determination and adaptability.1 It is these skills that are becoming increasingly valued by employers as AI and automation technologies continue to transform our experience of work. Though largely focused on an internal state – motivation - this report also acknowledges the importance of external contextual, structural, and institutional factors - including varying educational provision, differences in access to and quality of careers guidance, and unequal local opportunity structures – that interact to shape young people’s motivational development. As such, this work is situated within the Capabilities Approach that has helped inform much of IFOW’s research in the three-year Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing. In that major, multidimensional study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Sen and Nussbaum’s emphasis on how people can ‘live a life that they value’ was applied to the current context of changes to work and rapid technological transformation. Rather than a narrow focus on skills and opportunities, the Capabilities Approach understands that different people experience different personal, social, and environmental factors that influence their agency to convert their capabilities into realised achievements. Individual motivation – the energy to act towards a particular goal – forms one internal conversion factor, but the external dimensions of education provision and access to good careers guidance necessarily form another. It is our contention that if we are to address the increasing numbers of young people at risk of becoming ‘NEET’ (Not in Education, Employment or Training) and in the NEET category, we need a Capability Approach that addresses both of these internal and external factors in an integrated way. Building on the findings of our Stage 1 report, this second stage deepens understanding of both the internal and external factors required for the development of intrinsic and internal motivation. It draws on diverse strands of evidence, including desk research and a literature review, a review of international best practice, interviews with HR leads in firms and careers guidance leads in schools and other organisations working with young people. It is also informed by the results of our Channelling Motivation intervention pilot, which is discussed in detail in an accompanying working paper. The Stage 1 report established that young people, including those from low-income backgrounds, demonstrate intrinsic and internal motivation, yet may struggle to convert these motivations towards – in the language of capabilities – school or work ‘functionings’. It also highlighted the external conversion factors that socioeconomic disadvantage can bring, which limit opportunities for these forms of motivation to develop. This work also deployed Deki and Ryan’s Self Determination Theory (SDT - perhaps the best-evidenced, comprehensive approach to understanding motivation) to ground the Capabilities Approach in the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness that provide a foundation for action. This Stage 2 report uses these insights to develop new narratives for policymakers to think about careers support, and how this could be structured into an architecture for those delivering careers guidance to better support young people as they transition from school to work. We analyse the wider system of career and employment support in the UK. The picture is of uneven guidance that is often constrained by curriculum pressures and limited resources. Employers report valuing motivation as a predictor of potential, yet many young people receive very little opportunity to reflect on what motivates them. Structural factors such as poor transport, low measures of ‘good work’ locally, and fragmented employment support further hamper young people at periods of transition – and make tackling the issue of increasing numbers of ‘NEET’ young people more difficult. Thus, alongside improvements to motivation-supportive environments, better systemic integration across education, skills and training, welfare, and employment policies is required. The accompanying working paper offers an evaluation of a practical pilot intervention to help young people from low-income backgrounds foster internal and intrinsic motivation. We have found very encouraging early signs from this work, and positive results around cultivating these kinds of motivation. Doing so will catalyse the autonomy, competence and relatedness that will – in tandem with improved external factors – better prepare them to access good quality jobs. Young people, when situated in the right context, and supported by the right structures, will flourish. Across the spectrum of influence – from parents, teachers and careers counsellors, to regional leaders and national policymakers - it is incumbent on us all to create these structures and offer them a motivating future that supports them to participate in a fairer future of better work.