Reducing NEETness and barriers to opportunity: The Exeter exam centre project

Project

The Exeter exam centre pilot allows children who are not in school to take GCSE exams at Exeter College, in a project organised by the University of Exeter. Dr Luke Graham and Professor Anna Zimdars from the University of Exeter created the pilot project after identifying that many young people are unable to progress in their education or careers, because of non-existent or limited access to GCSE exams.

This project provides a collaborative, university-led solution to remove financial and site-based barriers to post-16 progression in a rural coastal county, where few alternative options are available.

Working with the local community (Exeter College and Devon County Council), Luke and Anna contacted families with young people registered as out of school. The University of Exeter provided free access to GCSE English language and GCSE maths exams. This was supported by an opportunity to sit two mock exams in each subject and receive feedback and guidance in preparation for final exams. 

In the 2025/26 academic year, 30 places were offered to children in Devon and Cornwall who were out of school in year 11.

Evaluation

In June 2026, TASO – alongside University of Exeter and KCL – led a successful bid  to the Evaluation Accelerator Fund to conduct a feasibility evaluation of the centre. The evaluation will be carried out by a team from the Policy Institute, KCL.

Through interviews with participants, their parents and stakeholders from the local authority and college, the evaluation aims to understand:

• the impact of the exam centre on participants’ access to further education and avoiding becoming NEET, 
• understand the circumstances which led to these participants being outside of mainstream education,
• the barriers and enablers to accessing these exam centres, and
• the challenges in setting up these exam centres 

Additionally a data analysis and document review exercise aims to understand the likely need for these centres across the country, the feasibility of rolling them out nationally, and a framework for future economic evaluation.

Timeline

The project will run until the end of March 2027. The report will be published in summer 2026.

Related news

• BBC News: Home-educated children offered free GCSEs
• University of Exeter: Pioneering work begins to help young people sit GCSEs to tackle the South West’s “NEET” crisis 
• Devon County Council: GCSE success for teenagers taking part in pioneering university and college project to reduce South West “NEET” numbers