Recruitment and Retention in the Post-16 Learning and Skills Sector

2.44 A total of 113 in-depth interviews, lasting around one hour, wereconducted with teaching staff between March and June 2005.Respondents were recruited from 30 learning and skills sector providersfrom the national LSC provider database. On average, four members ofstaff were interviewed in each providing organisation.2.45 Selection of providers was balanced to ensure a spread of cases acrossthe English regions. The 30 provider organisations were drawn fromacross the sector to reflect the proportionate size of each (in terms ofnumber of providers):• further education (8 providers);• work based learning (14 providers);• adult and community learning (8 providers).2.46 Interviews were conducted with teaching staff from a range of subjectareas. However, given the current policy emphasis on maths andscience, teachers were disproportionately selected from these subjectareas. The profile of participants by subject area is set out in Table 2.17below.Table 2.17: Profile of participants by Subject AreaSubjectNumberScience 28Maths 25Other 59Base: 113 valid respondentsAnalysis2.47 The analysis of the qualitative data has been undertaken through using atext tagging and retrieval programme, known as MaxQDA. Analysis ofthe data has been conducted through looking at all responses under aspecific theme (relating to the headings used in the interview discussionguide). Within this, further analysis has looked at responses by thosefrom each of the sub-sectors. Notable differences are reported. Wherethere is no analysis discussed at a sub-sectoral level, the observationsmade are generic to the post-16 sector as a whole.22