DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-3993-1
title: Skills Survey, 1997
title: Skills and Employment Survey, 1997-
title: SES; Skills Survey

description: &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Skills Survey&lt;/em&gt; is a series of nationally representative sample surveys of individuals in employment aged 20-60 years old (since 2006, the surveys have additionally sampled those aged 61-65). The surveys aim to investigate the employed workforce in Great Britain. Although they were not originally planned as part of a series and had different funding sources and objectives, continuity in questionnaire design has meant the surveys now provide a unique, national representative picture of change in British workplaces as reported by individual job holders. This allows analysts to examine how various aspects of job quality and skill levels have changed over 30 years.The first surveys in the series were carried out in 1986 and 1992. These surveys also form part of this integrated data series, and are known as the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative (SCELI) and Employment in Britain (EIB) studies respectively.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The 1997 survey was the first to collect primarily data on skills using the job requirements approach. This focused on collecting data on objective indicators of job skill as reported by respondents. The 2001 survey assessed how much had changed between the two surveys and a third survey in 2006 enhanced the time series data, while providing a resource for analysing skill and job requirements in the British economy at that time. The 2012 survey aimed to again add to the time series data and, coinciding as it did with a period of economic recession, to provide insight into whether workers in Britain felt under additional pressure/demand from employers as a result of redundancies and cut backs. In addition, a series dataset, covering 1986, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2006 and 2012 is also available . A follow-up to the 2012 survey was conducted in 2014, revisiting respondents who had agreed to be interviewed again. The 2017 survey was the seventh in the series, designed to examine to what extent pressures had continued as a result of austerity and economic uncertainties triggered, for example, by Brexit as well as examining additional issues such as productivity, fairness at work and the retirement intentions of older workers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Each survey comprises a large number of respondents: 4,047 in the 1986 survey; 3,855 in 1992; 2,467 in 1997; 4,470 in 2001; 7,787 in 2006; 3,200 in 2012; and 3,306 in 2017.&lt;/p&gt; The &lt;i&gt;Skills Survey, 1997&lt;/i&gt; was carried out in 1997 as part of the ESRC’s ‘Learning Society’ programme of research, was designed to extend the evidence about trends over time in ‘broad skills’ such as the qualifications required for job entry, the length of time it takes to train and the period taken to learn to do a job well.&lt;br&gt;
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The &lt;i&gt;Skills Survey, 1997&lt;/i&gt; had the following objectives:&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;to develop further the concept of and methodology for measuring different types of skills using an individual-based survey&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to investigate the impact of various antecedents on skills, including personal characteristics and, especially, forms of education and training&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to investigate the impact of the possession of various skills on pay&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to investigate which skills are changing during the 1990s, and to what extent&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;to investigate how skills are distributed among the employed population and how far the pattern of skill and skill change corresponds to a learning society, and consider appropriate policy conclusions&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;