Office of Population Censuses and Surveys: Coloured School Leavers' Employment Survey:...

The material in this series consists of the two volume report, 'Starting work' and 'The next five years'; the 4 preliminary reports; the working files, the schedules and specimen forms, questionnaires and coding reports and instructions used in the Coloured School Leavers' Employment Survey.

The key to the numbering of the schedules is as follows:

• Digit 1 area (1 = Inner London, 2 = Outer London, 3 = Birmingham);
• Digit 2-4 school number;
• Digit 5-6 school class number within the school;
• Digit 6-7 child number within the class;
• Digit 8 sample year and term (1 = Spring, year 1, 2 = Summer, year 1, 3 = Spring, year 2, 4 = Summer, year 2) NB. In Greater London there was a year 1 sample only;
• Digit 9 ethnic category (0, 1, 4, 5, 8, 9 = West Indians 2, 3, 6, 7 = White)

NB. the whites' ethnic category numbers frequently change between interview stages.

Topics

Labour

Census

Coloured School Leavers' Employment Survey, conducted on behalf of the Department of Employment, related to the employment experiences of school leavers of West Indian parentage who were educated in this country. The survey, which consisted of several interviews with the young person concerned, parents, teachers and Careers Officers, was carried out between September 1971 and February 1978 in London and Birmingham, these being the only areas in which a sufficient number of suitable young people could be found. Each young person of West Indian descent was matched with an indigenous young white person of similar background and education and their respective employment experiences compared. A few of the histories are incomplete as for various reasons the young person concerned dropped out.