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At a time when education and training is becoming a lifelong process, Australia is one of the few OECD countries with declining rates of school retention. Not only do early school leavers face long-term disadvantages in terms of unemployment and/or lower incomes, they are also associated with long-term risks of marginalisation. The aim of the National Youth Commitment is to prevent such marginalisation by providing young people with the opportunity to develop the basic skills and capacities to cope with the demands of the modern labour marketplace. It is a preventative strategy centred around the learning and work circumstances of young people. As part of this initiative, six partnerships were established between 1999 and 2001, in collaboration with the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF) and the former Enterprise and Career Education Foundation (ECEF), to trial integrated approaches by helping young people make the transition to independence. This report reviews the achievements of the six partnerships by: documenting the achievements; evaluating whether the approach is consistent with current local and international knowledge of transition principles and whether the implementation of these has led to improved outcomes for young people; capturing examples of innovation and implementation and impact on other systems; and identifying any barrier to further progress. The report concludes that despite the short period of time since the partnerships were established, progress has been made in achieving a number of the original objectives of the Youth Commitment.