The purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the changing influences on the educational and career decisions of young people at the minimum school-leaving age. At the centre of the work was an adminstered questionnaire to about 3,000 fifth form pupils aimed mainly at assessing the extent to which perceptions of future career opportunities are directly or indirectly present in their minds when they decide whether or not to stay on in school. A number of small-scale follow-up surveys were undertaken and several different studies made, testing various sociological and economic hypotheses, using the empirical data collected in the surveys. Variables Information on educational and career intentions and attitudes to school and work; perceptions of the labour market and expected life-time earnings for respondents themselves and in a range of occupations; standard demographic, social, educational and economic background material; a verbal reasoning test (AH4 Part I); examination results at 'O' level/CSE; and information on respondents' situation one year after the main survey.