In 2011, all sites were expected to take part in the Summer Arts College Surveys for Young People.
As an organisation, we place a huge emphasis on continually evaluating and improving our programmes. An essential part of this process includes collecting the views of young people taking part in the programme in order to establish what more can be done to improve our existing provision.
We are sure that, like us, you will be very keen to know how the views of young people taking part in your project can shape future work. This year, we are particularly interested to find out how young people feel about taking part in the programme and whether there is any shift or change in attitude towards education in general over the course of the project. The format for collecting the views of young people will be via an online survey completed no later than the Wednesday of week three.
As an incentive to sites that are interested in taking part, Unitas will provide access to the data collected from your site in the final evaluation. Whilst the surveys will remain anonymous, sites will be able to assess areas of strength and weaknesses from the perspective of those taking part.
What will you need?
In order to take part in the surveys this year, sites needed:
1. Access to the internet to complete the survey online at the end of the Summer Arts College. Sites may want to do this with young people in conjunction with the post Basic Skills Assessments that is completed by every young person, as the survey is not likely to take more than ten minutes.
2. A quiet space for each young person to answer questions in confidence. It is absolutely essential that we receive a true reflection of the feelings of the young people taking part. For this reason, we ask that sites ensure that young people are able to complete surveys on their own and without influence from staff or their peer group. It is preferable that a member of staff not involved in running the college facilitates this process where possible.
3. A register code for each young person taking part in the survey. This will consist of two letters (usually the young person’s initials) and two numbers and will be the same code that the Project Manager for each site used when completing registers on the Unitas Workflow Management System. It is essential that each young person uses the correct code in order that we have access to the location of each young person. The code will also allow us to ensure that the correct data is supplied to sites as part of the final evaluation.