ENROLMENT AND EXAMINATION SUCCESS OF DAY RELEASE STUDENTS1 BY SIZE OF FIRM
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Author | G. L. Ashton |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1965.tb00889.x |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
RESEARCH NOTE
ENROLMENT AND EXAMINATION SUCCESS
OF
DAY RELEASE
STUDENTS BY SIZE
OF
FIRM
G.
L.
ASHTON*
IN
a previous research noteY2 Keil, Riddell and Tipton have shown that
there are ‘big differences between the composition of the labour force by
size of firm and the composition of the new entrants, particularly marked
in the case of They showed that in Leicester over half the male
youth entrants join firms employing less than
IOO
persons, and that the
proportions entering the three other size categories (see Table
I)
were
markedly lower than the proportions of the labour force already working
in these firms4
In
their conclusion, the authors suggested that this im-
balance of entry may well affect the quality of the industrial training of
young workers, since the small firm does not have the facilities for training
that the larger establishments have. They further suggested that this
would be particularly true of male apprentices.
An
investigation recently completed at Leicester suggests further
evidence for this conclusion. An analysis of entry to day release courses and
of examination success of students at three local colleges5 indicates how
advantageously situated are the young entrants in large enterprises in
comparison with those in very small firms. This is particularly
so
with
regard to examination success in comparison with those in middle-sized
firms.
The entry to
dq
release courses
Table
I
shows that clearly disproportionate numbers of young workers
are being enrolled for day release courses in relation to the numbers of
young people entering industry, in terms of distribution between sizes of
firms.
*
Research Student, Department of Sociology, University of Leicester
1
Students in the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Printing,
Building and Textiles of three Technical Colleges. Virtually all the students in these departments
are male apprentices. This note is the result ofwork carried out as part of the writer’s post-graduate
research, supervised by A. G. Giddens, M.A., at the University of Leicester.
2
E.
T.
Keil,
D.
S.
Riddell and
C.
Tipton, ‘The Entry of School Leavers into Employment’,
BritishJournal
of
Industrial
Relations,
Vol.
I
(1963),
pp.
408-1
1
3
ibid.,
p.
41
1
4
ibid.,
table
2,
p.
409
5
I
am particularly indebted
to
the Principals, Registrars and Heads of Departments for
facilities granted me
for
the collection ofdata. Also to Misses Averil Hodgson and Joan C. Lewis
for help in the collection of information at the colleges.
90
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