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The Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) is a longitudinal survey designed to provide policy-relevant information about school-work transitions and factors influencing pathways among education, training and work.

Over the past three years, Human Resources Development Canada and Statistics Canada have been developing the YITS in consultation with provincial and territorial ministries and departments of labour and education. Content includes measurement of major transitions in young people's lives including virtually all formal educational experiences and most labour-market experiences. Factors influencing transitions are also included family background, school experiences, achievement, aspirations and expectations, and employment experiences. The implementation plan encompasses a longitudinal survey for each of two cohorts, ages 15 and 18-20, to be surveyed every two years.

Cycle 1 of YITS (for the cohort aged 15) was integrated with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a project of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD/PISA project was conducted through a partnership with the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, and provincial ministries and departments of education.

The sample design of the 15-year-old cohort is a school-based frame that allows the selection of schools, and then individuals within schools. This design will permit analysis of school effects, a research domain not currently addressed by other Statistics Canada surveys. Data collection for cycle 1 took place in April-May 2000. A pilot survey was conducted in April 1999 and the main survey took place in April-May 2000. Interviews were conducted with 30,000 students from 1,000 schools in Canada. A telephone interview with parents of selected students took place from June to August 2000.

The sample design for the cohort aged 18-20 is similar to that of the Labour Force Survey. The method of data collection is computer-assisted telephone interviewing. In January-February 2000, 23,000 youth participated in the first survey cycle.

Preliminary results from both age cohorts are expected to be available in late 2001. Following the release of the first international report by the OECD/PISA project and the first national report, data will be publicly available, permitting detailed exploration of content themes.