It took me back to one of my first research posts, which was as part of a team evaluating the impact of the Youth Opportunities Programme (the first major government youth training initiative that ran from 1979 to 1983).
The study involved a survey of over 600 minimum age school leavers, tracking their progress over the following two years. It then paid particular attention to those who became unemployed and joined a training scheme. My role in the research was primarily to conduct the more qualitative aspects of the inquiry - more probing discussions and participant observations with these young people.
The school leavers' survey was carried out with questionnaires administered by a market research team. However, just occasionally, I was asked to step in when, from scrutiny of school and careers records, it looked as if the young person might prove "awkward". This led me to visiting the home of Michelle. Not that there was much to indicate her "awkwardness", except for a note by the careers service that she was unlikely to secure shop or office work because she "refuses to wear a skirt". Factory work was her only prospect, according to officials.
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