Research methodology
Encouraging UK-German Youth Exchanges
2 Research methodology
Online survey An online survey was distributed in Germany (DE) and the UK between July and September 2023. It was available in German, English, and Welsh. The survey was targeted at young people (age 16 to 26) and youth workers, with different questions to each group. There were 903 (n=197 UK, 706 DE) valid responses from young people and 142 (n=52 UK, 90 DE) valid responses from youth workers. Survey distribution was undertaken by IJAB, UK-German Connection and the British Council, using their existing publicity channels. The sampling method was intentionally opportunistic and is not formally a representative sample. Like any sample of this nature, results should be interpreted with caution. In the youth section of the survey the German sample size was reasonably large, well matched by geography, and included young people from a range of educational, employment and financial backgrounds. The UK youth sample was smaller, reasonably well matched by geography, and included young people from a range of educational, employment and financial backgrounds. Known limitations within the sample are: › A likely over-representation of both youth workers and young people with previous experience of youth exchanges or an interest in youth exchanges. This is
likely to lead to an overestimation of positive attitudes toward youth exchanges as well as youth workers’ level of competence to support exchanges. › A likely over-representation of young people on the UK side interested in languages and language exchange being overemphasised in the results. The UK young people’s sample had a notable number of participants previously involved in UK-German Connection pupil exchanges focused on language. › A smaller than optimum response rate in the UK from young people, reducing reliability of results in this area. In both countries there is a substantial over- representation of young women compared to young men (74.6% female, 21.7% male, 3.65% other or not disclosed). However, comparison of results between males and females revealed few significant differences and this may not have affected results overall. A measure of subjective financial wellbeing linked to living circumstances was used to make comparisons between young people in weaker financial circumstances (n=14 UK, 76 DE, 10.4%) and stronger financial circumstances (n=166 UK, 613 DE, 89.6%) throughout the study to explore differences in economic backgrounds of participants.
This research was undertaken using an applied research approach, emphasising gathering usable and useful intelligence to inform the development of future policy or programme initiatives. Five distinct methods were used.
See the annex for further details on the survey sample.
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