Young People: Educational and Occupational Choice, 1976

In 1965 the Danish National Institute of Social Research carried out a survey of the educational conditions of the 14 to 20-year-olds. In continuation of this survey it was decided to examine more closely the process leading to the educational conditions mapped out in the 1965-survey. Thus, in the spring of 1968, the Danish National Institute of Social Research carried out a longitudinal survey of the choice of education and occupation of a generation of adolescents at the request of the Ministry of Education. # The aim of this survey, called the youth panel survey, was to examine why some young people choose one education in preference to others and one job in preference to others. Furthermore, the intention was to find out why some young people get an education while others get a job. # Such an aim may best be fulfilled if the survey is longitudinal, i.e. a panel survey, and therefore the survey population consists of 3100 young people, who were to be followed through a period of approx. 6 years, from they were 14-15 and till they were 20-21. These young people were selected as a representative sample of all 7th form pupils in the entire country in the spring of 1968. # In order to get as detailed and clear a picture of the process involved in choice of education and occupation an attempt was made at mapping out a large number of aspects which were considered to influence this process. This was done by carrying out various types of interviews, by asking the young people about conditions which did not immediately seem to have any connection with the choice of education and occupation (e.g. spare time activities, and contact with young people of the same age), and by carrying out interviews with the young people's parents and teachers. # On the face of it one might find it sufficient to carry out interviews only once, e.g. when the young people were 25, and then ask the respondents how they had managed. The reason for not doing this was that people only remember alimited number of the aspects which are of importance for how they manage, and as time passes memory becomes more and more distorted. People may answer in such a way that what happened earlier fits in with what happened later. The survey was concerned with what actually happened, and therefore it was necessary to ask about this at the time when it happened, so interviews had to be carried out several times during the course of education and occupation. # #The first four phases are described in DDA-1363: 'Young People: Educational and Occupational Choice, 1968-1973'. # #Phase 5: #The third interview phase consisted of face-to-face interviews in November 1976 when the young people were about 22 years old