Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Education and Youth Transitions project (EYT) was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) from 2003 to 2006. It examined the effects of social, economic and policy change on young people's experiences of education and transitions to the labour market in the 1980s and 1990s. Although social and economic changes were experienced throughout Britain, there were differences in emphasis of policies in England, Wales and Scotland, as progressive devolution of power provided opportunity for policies to diverge. For example, there was greater support for comprehensive schooling in Wales and Scotland, whereas in England there was greater emphasis on markets, choice and diversity of schooling. In the light of these differences, the research explored the extent to which change over time in young people's experiences of education, training and the labour market up to the age of 18 and over differed in England, Wales and Scotland. The main data sources used for the project were two nationally-representative government-funded cohort surveys: the Youth Cohort Study for England and Wales (YCS) (held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33233), the Scottish Young Peoples Survey (SYPS) cohorts of 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1990 (held under GN 33227) and the Scottish School Leavers Survey (SSLS) after 1993 (held under GN 33266). Hitherto it has not been easy to use these surveys for analysing change over time, because of changes in design, question wording and survey procedures; major analytical challenges were posed by changes over time in courses, qualifications, occupations and social class. Comparison of Scotland with England and Wales was also difficult, because although YCS and SYPS/SSLS were similar in design during the 1980s, they became less comparable in the 1990s. In the light of these issues, a major concern of the Education and Youth Transitions project was the construction of comparable time-series datasets from the YCS and SSLS. These new datasets enable analysis of the effects of social change on young people's experiences, outcomes and transitions, and exploration of the similarities and differences in trends across Britain. Further information about the project may be found on the Centre for Educational Sociology Education and Youth Transitions web pages, and the ESRC Education and Youth Transitions in England, Wales and Scotland 1984-2002 project web page.
Main Topics:
The data include 'core' file, covering demographic details including household composition, age, gender, ethnicity, school type attended, housing, parental educational background, employment, and educational courses. Further data files cover qualifications, post-16 education and labour market participation.
No sampling (total universe)
See documentation for details of original cohort study samples.
Compilation or synthesis of existing material
See documentation for details of original cohort study data collection methods.
