Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The Scottish Executive has sponsored surveys of school-leavers and young people since the early 1970s. These include the first incarnation of the Scottish School-Leavers Survey (SSLS) which, in the mid-1980s, was subsumed within the broader Scottish Young People's Survey (SYPS - this series is held at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) under GN 33227). Following a review in 1991 of the use made of the findings by the Scottish Executive Education and Industry Department (SEEID), the survey was redesigned and resumed the title of the Scottish School-Leavers Survey. A further review in 1996 led to the establishment of the current design, which involves sampling cohorts of young people in fourth year and then collecting data from them on four occasions, at the ages of 16-17, 18-19, 21-22 and 23-24 years. The series is conducted for the Scottish Executive by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), who were known as Social and Community Planning Research prior to 1999. The Scottish Centre for Social Research (SCSR or ScotCen) was created in 2004 by combining NatCen's existing operation in Scotland with an independent research consultancy, Scottish Health Feedback. SCSR have now taken over the running of the SSLS series. The SSLS series obtains information on the educational and employment activities of young people after they leave school; their views and experiences of school itself; and key decisions made about whether to stay on at school or not. In addition, background characteristics are gathered, such as parents' level of education and social class, family circumstances and housing tenure. One of the main aims of the survey is to try and predict demand for higher education. The survey involves a random sample of all pupils in the relevant school year group. The only exception is that pupils at special schools (but not those in mainstream schools registered as having special educational needs) are excluded from the survey. The sample consists of all pupils born on any one of certain predetermined days of the month.
This dataset comprises the first and second contacts with the third cohort of young people to be recruited since the series was redesigned in 1996 (Cohort 1 was drawn from respondents already included in the SSLS prior to the redesign). The sample was composed of young people who had been in school year S4 in Scotland during the academic year 2001-2002. The first sweep was conducted with these respondents in 2003 when they were aged 16-17 years, and the second in 2005, when they were aged 19 years. Data and documentation from the second sweep was added to the dataset for the second edition.
Main Topics:
Topics covered include educational and employment activities of respondents after they left school; their views and experiences of school itself (at the first sweep); and key decisions made as to whether to stay on at school or leave. In addition, information was gathered on background characteristics such as parents' level of education and social class, family circumstances and housing tenure. Standard Measures:Standard Occupational Classification, 1990 (SOC90)Standard Occupational Classification, 2000 (SOC2000)Standard Industrial Classification, 1992 (SIC92)National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC)
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
Postal survey
