Survey Link Scheme 2006 Survey Link Scheme

HISTORY The Scheme was founded in 1981 by Professor Aubrey McKennell and has been supported by ESRC ever since. Up to 70 people attended during each year of the scheme University of Surrey

CHANGE We and ESRC now wish to extend the scheme : Changing the emphasis of the scheme to be more workshop based Aiming more at postgraduates doing taught courses, and Linking more directly with the Question Bank Intending to be more practical and interactive Offering to ESRC and non-ESRC sponsored clientele University of Surrey

Details of the New Scheme Briefing will now be at the UK Universities rather than within Office for National Statistics and National Centre for Survey Research. In 2005 we ran workshops in conjunction with the Survey organisations at CCSR Manchester, Napier University, Cardiff University and Surrey. Over 130 people attended. In 2006 we hope to extend the workshops to include the North East of England and Northern Ireland. Our target is to have 150 people through the workshops this year. Next year we hope to meet our target of 200 people. University of Surrey

ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED Office for National Statistics (ONS) National Centre for Social Research (NATCEN) Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex in collaboration with NOP BMRB INTERNATIONAL University of Surrey

WHAT IS INVOLVED Attending a 1-Day Workshop at the Regional location of your choice An optional fieldwork visit with an Interviewer within NATCEN, ONS, ISER, and BMRB University of Surrey

WORKSHOPS The one day includes: A brief overview of the BLAISE computer program used in the development of questionnaires Construction of the questionnaire and practical discussion on interviewing A Survey Organisations presentation on the use of CAPI on a major survey such as General Household Survey, British Social Attitudes Survey, &c

SURVEYS IN THE SCHEME General Household Survey British Social Attitudes Survey British Household Panel Survey Scottish House Conditions Survey Family Resources Survey Labour Force Survey Health Survey for England

WHO BENEFITS? Social Science Researchers Post Graduate Students: –MSc. –Ph.D. Teachers of Research Methods Researchers (non-Academic)

Survey Link Scheme PARTICIPANTS in 2005 University of Surrey Participants Academic Staff (Researchers or Teachers) 30 PhD Students58 MSc Students27 Local Authority / Voluntary Researchers14 Government Researchers5 Private researchers1 Other1 Total136

17% of participants described themselves as qualitative researchers 18% quantitative researcher 65% had qualitative and quantitative research experience 91% said it would influence their future research

Currently few Social Research Methods Courses for postgraduates provide more than a general treatment of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). Even fewer, if any, provide training in the use of the BLAISE software - normally used to construct the CAPI scripts produced by the major survey organisations. University of Surrey Survey Link Scheme WHY APPLY?

Although this has been the first year of the new format, the response from participants has been very good. We are modifying the content to reflect the needs of the participants as they emerge. Survey Link Scheme WHY APPLY? University of Surrey

Secondary analysts sometimes forget where the data come from, and tend to lose the focus: …… or interpret them according to their mental schemes. The knowledge of how a survey is organised from the start will stand me in good stead when next making use of the data and particularly ……… deciding on the sort of questions to be asked. My own work uses qualitative methods …really valuable to gain an insight into data collection …on a large quantitative survey Survey Link Scheme WHY APPLY? University of Surrey

In keeping with our target we are intending to run 8 workshops in 2006 So far we have run one at City University in January - 37 people attended and we plan to run 7 more workshops at various locations throughout the UK Survey Link Scheme WORSHOPS University of Surrey

Survey Link Scheme Current Programme University of Surrey

Details of most of the surveys may be found in the Question Bank, a Web resource at The SLS pages are updated as the Scheme develops with the Survey Organisations. Survey Link Scheme FURTHER DETAILS University of Surrey

CONTACTS Online: Jenny Rains [Administrator] TEL: