abcdefghijkl Scottish School Leavers’ Survey A brief overview by Barry Stalker

abcdefghijkl Contents - Background - Main advantages of the study - Methodology - Main areas covered

abcdefghijkl Background to study - Important SE funded series of surveys going back to the 1970s. - Outputs include report from each survey sweep, dataset of each sweep stored in ESRC archive and ‘special studies’ analysing datasets. - Provides a unique perspective on issues of young people’s transitions through education, employment and training in Scotland for government, for provider agencies, and for the research community. - Longitudinal research among cohorts of young people from leaving compulsory education in S4 to age Management of study transferred to ED from ETLLD in June 2003.

abcdefghijkl Methodology - Sample of 20% of S4 school pupils in Scotland by birth date, using SQA records, every 3 years. - Cohort of young people in S4 in June, first surveyed in Spring the following year (16-17 years) and followed up at ages 18-19, 21-22, years). - Follow up telephone ‘tracing’ for non-respondents and interview. - Postal self-completion questionnaire. - ‘Stable contact’ details collected at sweep 1 as back up in subsequent sweeps.

abcdefghijkl SSLS activity CohortFinish S4 in Sw1 Sw2 Sw3 SwX Sw4 June16/1718/1921/2222/2323/

abcdefghijkl Main advantages of the study - Longitudinal: - Comparison within and between Cohorts. - Analysis – residual heterogeneity, causality. - Track transitions over time. - Data useful for a number of policy interests (as well as stakeholders). - History: long time running, catalogue of data.

abcdefghijkl Main areas covered - ED: - ETLLD: - Further Education - Higher Education - Government training programmes - Young People Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET) - Employment - School - S4, S5, S6.