Scottish Government

Chapter One Introduction, definitions & methods

Introduction

1.1 DTZ Consulting & Research was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Tourism, Culture and Sport Information and Analytical Services on behalf of Cultural Policy to investigate the link between those who study arts subjects at school and later employability. This research will inform the Scottish Executive across a number of major policy areas including:

• The National Cultural Strategy (2000a), which has recognised that cultural activity develops skills for life, extending children's and young people's range of experiences, their self-confidence, creativity, team-working and communications skills, as well as enriching their future opportunities for employment and lifelong learning;
• Scotland's Culture, the Scottish Executive response on the Cultural Review (2006), which has proposed an 'escalator model' to help Scotland's culturally talented young people move from school into work, either directly or through further and higher education; and
• Major national education policy developments including National Priorities (2000b), Determined to Succeed (2003) and Ambitious Excellent Schools (2004b), which are aimed to foster creativity amongst young people, widen horizons and encourage enterprising ambitions, continue to be objectives shared with major national education policy developments.

Study Objectives

1.2 The aims of this study are as follows:

1. To identify if there is a link between what subjects young people study at school and their later employability;
2. To identify if there is a link between what subjects young people study at school and their later type of employment;
3. To compare employability and type of employment between those pupils who studied arts subjects and those who did not;
4. To establish the proportion of students studying arts subjects who progress to further/higher education or employment in the cultural or creative industries; and
5. To ascertain whether there is a difference in the levels of confidence felt by students who studied arts subjects at school and those who did not.

Data availability

1.3 The above objectives were addressed through a data matching exercise, using the Scottish School Leavers Survey ( SSLS) and Scottish Qualification Authority ( SQA) datasets. The SSLS and SQA datasets are described below.

Scottish Qualification Authority ( SQA) database

1.4 The SQA database contains data for pupils studying or having studied a number of subjects in the following grades:

• Standard grade;
• Higher grade; and
• Certificate of Sixth Year Studies ( CSYS) ².

1.5 The SQA dataset includes data for the time period 1995-1999 for higher and standard grades and 1996-1999 for CSYS. The database includes a large number of records, around 500,000 for each year for standard grade; 164,000 for higher grade and 12,700 for CSYS. The variables included in the SQA database are summarised in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 SQA variables

Notes to table
Source: SQA, adapted by DTZ Consulting & Research

Scottish School Leavers Survey ( SSLS) database

1.6 The surveys of school leavers and young people currently sponsored by the Scottish Executive have been running since the early 1970s. The SSLS was designed to collect information about people's experiences as they leave school and go on to education, training, work and raise families, including questions centred on:

• What young people do after leaving school;
• Help with choosing education or training courses;
• Careers decisions;
• Employment; and
• Family life.

1.7 The SSLS survey was reviewed in 1996. The survey samples cohorts, or groups, of young people in their fourth year (S4) and through time, collecting data on the same sampled young people on 3 subsequent occasions: spring of the following year, 2 years after that, and 4 years after that. In other words, at the time the data is collected, the same young people are surveyed at ages 16-17 (Sweep 1), 18-19 (Sweep 2) and 22-23 (Sweep 3).

1.8 Given increasing policy interest in later youth transitions, it was decided in 2002 to refine this design further by extending the period of follow-up to 24 and bring forward slightly the age group for the third Sweep (from 22-23 to 21-22). Each cohort will now be surveyed on 4 occasions covering those aged 16-17, 18-19, 21-22 and 23-24 (Scottish Executive, 2005).

1.9 In this study, 2 cohorts of young people were investigated:

• Cohort 2 were first contacted in 1996 aged 16-17 (at Sweep 1); then aged 18-19 (at Sweep 2) and finally aged 23-24 (at Sweep 4); and
• Cohort 3 were first contacted in 1998, recruited in 1999 aged 16-17 (at Sweep 1); aged 18-19 (at Sweep 2) and finally aged 21-22 (at Sweep 3).

1.10 Using Cohorts 2 and 3 it was possible to make a comparison over time. This is a crucial benefit in using longitudinal data and as a result, it was possible to look at changes in socio-economic status of the respondents, including employment conditions occurred at different ages for respondents. Questionnaires were relatively similar between Cohorts and Sweeps; however Sweep questionnaires did have some important but minor differences:

• Sweep 1: Recruitment questions focusing on background with less focus on attitudinal questions;
• Sweep 2: Qualifications, aspirations and intentions for further study;
• Sweep 3: Similar to Sweep 2 (although not asked in Cohort 2); and
• Sweep 4: Similar to Sweep 2 & 3 but with additional attitudinal questions.

Defining arts subjects

1.11 The study brief, outlining the scope for this study, specifies that arts subjects are those that fall within the creative industries definition used by Department for Culture, Media and Sport ⁴ as follows:

"Those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property. This includes advertising, architecture, the art and antiques market, crafts, design, fashion design, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer games, television and radio."

1.12 The first column of Table 1.2 (below) presents the 13 arts subjects as described in the definition above. The remaining 3 columns map arts subjects as presented in the SQA database (codes are presented in brackets) with arts subjects as defined in the study brief.

Table 1.2 Mapping of arts subjects ( SQA codes in brackets)

Notes to the table
Source: SQA, adapted by DTZ Consulting & Research

1.13 Table 1.2 shows that arts subjects represent 11% of all subjects studied at school at standard grade, compared to 17% at higher grade and 10% at CSYS. The mapping exercise undertaken in Table 1.2 shows subjects such as television and radio and film and video are not studied at school, these subjects are predominantly taught at post-level 7 ( i.e. university level).

1.14 Art and design, craft and design, music and drama can clearly be classified as arts subjects. Following the mapping exercise the following two subjects were also included:

• Graphic communication: according to the SQA definition, the graphic communication subject covers topics such as: drawing abilities; illustration and presentation; and knowledge and interpretation. Moreover, the "course develops the knowledge and skills in sketching and drawing everyday items in orthographic and pictorial projections using both manual and computer-aided methods" ( SQA, 2006a)
  Graphic communication covers aspects of both drawing and interactive leisure software and it is therefore reasonable to include it in the arts subjects' list; and

• Technical drawing: technical drawing was a stand-alone subject in 1995 - 1999, but is now subsumed within graphic communication. Following the reasoning outlined in the paragraph above, technical drawing was also included in the arts subjects' list ⁵.

Defining employability

1.15 In the context of this research it is recognised that the concept of employability should reflect the definition provided by the Effective Interventions Unit in the Scottish Executive Health Department:

"…the combination of factors and processes which enable people to progress towards or get into employment, to stay in employment and to move on in the workplace."

1.16 Throughout this research, this definition will be the core of what it is regarded as 'employability'. This definition is consistent with the 4 capacities identified in A Curriculum for Excellence (Scottish Executive, 2004), which is aimed at developing children and young people to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors at work (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 The 4 Capacities Identified in A Curriculum for Excellence

Notes to chart
Source: Scottish Executive (2004a)

1.17 While the 4 broad categories shown in Figure 1.1 provide a useful starting point in providing substance to the general definition of employability, it is possible to generate a more comprehensive framework for the purposes of this research. Specifically, a framework that covers all of the ' factors and processes' highlighted in the core definition. In this respect, there is merit in following the framework provided in Scottish Enterprise's New Futures Employability Framework (April 2004). The framework is summarised in Table 1.3 below:

Table 1.3 Factors Influencing Employability

Notes to table
Source: DTZ Consulting & Research (based on the New Futures Employability Framework, Scottish Enterprise, April 2004)

1.18 The factors identified above provide a useful framework for this study as they encompass the broad areas covered by the Scottish School Leavers Survey ( SSLS). This allowed consistency and clarity in our findings. Within the framework knowledge and skills, for example, self-confidence is highlighted as a factor influencing employability. Confidence is one of the key outcomes investigated in this report.

1.19 In addition to defining our core definition of employability and the framework of the main factors influencing employability, it is useful to clarify the way in which employability is measured. Following Hillage and Pollard's (1998) definition, employability is ultimately based upon 4 fundamental pillars:

• Gaining initial employment;
• Maintaining employment;
• Obtaining new employment; and
• Quality of work or employment.

Measuring employability using the SSLS database

1.20 As stated above, the data made available for this study covered Cohorts 2 and 3 and the following time periods:

Table 1.4 Sweeps and time periods covered by SSLS for Cohort 2 and 3

Notes to table
Source: SSLS, adapted by DTZ Consulting & Research

1.21 Approaches to measuring the 4 employment pillars were agreed with the steering group in order to provide a broad assessment of the potential link between those who study arts subjects and later employability. A range of approaches were used where possible and appropriate ⁶. For some areas, notably gaining new employment, the available sample size was not sufficiently large enough to investigate.

Database restructuring

1.22 Significant restructuring of the SQA data needed to be undertaken before the data matching exercise could be completed. The SQA database is structured with each qualification stored as a record; hence an individual studying a number of qualifications in a given year is recorded across a number of records. The SSLS data by comparison is structured with each individual stored as a unique record.

1.23 To match the SQA and SLSS data, DTZ Consulting & Research restructured the SQA data creating a record to uniquely identify each learner. Additional records for learners studying more than one qualification were transformed into variables and added to the unique learner record showing the subject area, level and result ⁷. The SQA and SLSS data were then matched with a 99.4% success rate.

Data matching

1.24 The 2 data sets were merged with key outcomes, as shown below in Table 1.5.

Table 1.5 Data matching

Notes to table
Source: DTZ Consulting & Research

1.25 All findings in this report are based on robust sample sizes. This report uses information for 11,699 young people with 4,277 observations in Cohort 2 and 7,422 observations in Cohort 3.