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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 document contains case studies of the six partnerships. They are: Central Coast Youth Commitment; Gold Coast Youth Commitment; Macarthur Youth Commitment; Northern Sunshine Coast Youth Commitment; Tumut Youth Commitment; and Whittlesea Case Study.