Introduction
Seven Artskills trainees carried out research, over the winter of 2000/20001, to produce an evaluation report - ‘Communic8’. It was both a training and education project (designed and delivered by the ICARUS collective - accredited by the Open College Network) and a practical piece of research and evaluation in its own right.
Aim of the research
To find out about the experience of former Artskills trainees - this information would then be evaluated in order to ensure that the work of Artskills continues to be relevant and provided to as high a standard as possible.
A postal questionnaire survey was designed and sent to 237 former trainees who had attended Artskills from June 1996 to mid-2000. This took place over November and December 2000. A total of 89 people responded and returned the questionnaire - 37.5% of those surveyed. Postal questionnaires typically have poor response rates and this total can be considered relatively good (eg. Department for Education & Employment, DfEE - European Social Fund, ESF beneficiaries survey gets less than 10% responses).
Findings
| • | Of 89 respondents (people completing the questionnaire) there were 48 male and 41 female |
| • | 58 were aged 18 -24, with a further 19 aged 25-35 and 9 aged 16-17 years |
| • | Ethnic monitoring was not undertaken (average Black & ethnic minority participation in Artskills courses over the study period is 19%) |