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Chapter Two Methodology
The survey of parents was carried out as part of the Focus Studies element of the research. The Focus Studies covered four local authorities which were selected to reflect: geography (urban, suburban, rural, remote rural); pupils' profile in respect of part-time work and enterprising attitudes identified from their responses to the national pupils' survey; the nature of the local labour market; the presence of relevant initiatives; and socio-economic profile. Within each of these authorities, two of the schools that had been involved in the main national pupil survey were invited to participate, giving a total of eight schools. In addition to the parents' survey, the Focus Studies had three other elements: group work with pupils in S4, S5 and S6; interviews and group discussions with a range of school staff and interviews with Careers Scotland staff.
A total of 376 students took part in the group work, a mixture of those who had ever had a part-time job and students who had never worked part-time: 260 workers and 116 non workers. In the focus groups each pupil was asked to give contact details for one parent/caregiver and permission for us to contact the nominated person. The bulk of the pupils were happy to do so and only 16 out of 376 did not wish the research team to contact their parents. Questionnaires were then despatched to 360 named parents. The questionnaire covered their own experience of part-time work when they had been at school; their views on part-time work, on recognition and on the impact of part-time employment on their child and more generally. A copy of the questionnaire is contained in Appendix 1.
A total of 275 completed survey forms were returned, providing a completion rate of 73%. This high return rate may be attributed to several factors: the fact that the letters and questionnaires sent to parents were personalised by naming their son or daughter throughout; the despatch of the questionnaires were followed up by a series of telephone calls to parents to encourage participation and, finally, all returned survey forms were entered into a prize draw.
The majority of questionnaires were completed by the pupil's mother/step-mother (75%); most of the remainder were filled out by the pupil's father or step-father (22%) with 2% being completed by other relatives.
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