Youth in Transition Survey - Project Overview - ARCHIVED

The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) is a longitudinal survey designed to provide policy-relevant information about school-work transitions and factors influencing pathways. YITS will provide vehicle for future research and analysis of major transitions in young people's lives, particularly those between education, training and work. Information obtained from, and research based on, the survey will help clarify the nature and causes of short and long-term challenges young people face in school-work transitions and support policy planning and decision making to help prevent or remedy these problems.

Objectives of the Youth in Transition Survey were developed after an extensive consultation with stakeholders with an interest in youth and school-work transitions. Content includes measurement of major transitions in young people's lives including virtually all formal educational experiences and most labour-market experiences. Factors influencing transitions are also included family background, school experiences, achievement, aspirations and expectations, and employment experiences.

The implementation plan encompasses a longitudinal survey for each of two age cohorts, to be surveyed every two years. Data from a cohort entering at age 15 will permit analysis of long-term school-work transition patterns. Data from a cohort entering at ages18-20 will provide more immediate, policy-relevant information on young adults in the labour market.

Cycle one for the cohort aged 15 will include information collected from youth, their parents, and school principals. The sample design is a school-based frame that allows the selection of schools, and then individuals within schools. This design will permit analysis of school effects, a research domain not currently addressed by other Statistics Canada surveys. Methods of data collection include a self-completed questionnaire for youth and school principals, a telephone interview with parents, and assessment of youth competency in reading, science and mathematics as using self-completed test booklets provided under the integration of YITS with the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). A pilot survey was conducted in April 1999 and the main survey took place in April-May 2000. Interviews were conducted with 30,000 students aged 15 from 1,000 schools in Canada. A telephone interview with parents of selected students took place in June 2000.

The sample design for the cohort aged 18-20 is similar to that of the Labour-Force survey. The method of data collection is computer-assisted telephone interviewing. The pilot survey was conducted in January 1999. In January-February 2000, 23, 000 youth participated in the main survey data collection.

Data from both cohorts is expected to be available in 2001. Following release of the first international report by the OECD/PISA project and the first national report, data will be publically available, permitting detailed exploration of content themes.