Purpose: This paper provides evidence of the outcomes proposed by the reviewed programmes and their level of effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: Articles were screened by title and abstract to ensure correspondence with exclusion/inclusion criteria. Themes were analysed through collective coding and scoring. Size effects were calculated. Findings: Three expected outcomes--psychological, technical and (re) employment. The most frequent and significant results are found in psychological. The review could not find consistent results in effectiveness of the type of training, because of the diversity of propositions and socio-cultural origins of interventions. Research limitations/implications: Socio-cultural context acts as variable; thus, deep interdisciplinary analysis on context where trainings were developed is suggested in order to understand the impact of trainings according to their population defining effectiveness. Originality/value: There is no previous review of type of interventions for the unemployed focusing on last 30 years.