Thousands of people from across the Western Isles who have left school in the last ten years are to be contacted in a major survey to find out what they did next.

Questionnaires will be going out to the last known addresses of the former pupils, taken from Careers Scotland records, and the survey organisers are hoping for help from their families and the public in general to make sure as many of them as possible reach the people intended.
 
The aim of the survey is to gather information about the career, work and training choices which people have made so that public agencies can develop improvements in the opportunities for people to live and work on the Western Isles.
 
The survey asks a range of questions about what education and training people have undergone after school and where they chose to go to do this.  It also looks at the reasons why people made their various choices and, for those now living off the Islands, it asks for the reasons they ended up living away and what would entice them to come back.

Those living away are also offered the chance to receive a regular e-mail newsletter giving details of social and economic developments on the Islands.

The survey is taking place over the next two months and has been commissioned by Western Isles Enterprise (WIE). The project, covering the years1993-2003, is being organised by a local trainee careers advisor Jane Smith, from Upper Shader, Barvas. She has a range of experience as a youth worker and training in career guidance, health promotion and sociology. WIE's skills development team in collaboration with Careers Scotland is managing the project.
 
This School Leavers Destinations survey will build on work undertaken by the Western Isles Education Business Partnership in the early 1990's.  In 1992 - in a project funded by WIE - the Education Business Partnership sent out a survey to school leavers on the Western Isles from four chosen years in the previous 13.  Around 1360 responses were received to almost 3,400 requests for information and showed around 53 per cent of those responding from off the Islands would like to return if the right opportunities arose. The percentage was higher for younger age groups.
 
In a development from this, the following year a database of around 900 people interested in jobs on the Islands was compiled to enable them to be put in contact with local employers.
 
The new survey also follows concern about the decline in population on the Islands, which is part of a pattern common to much of rural Europe, but has raised concerns about the maintenance of healthcare, education and other services and the long-term economic viability of the Islands.

The findings of the new survey will be widely publicised and used to develop an action plan for the Islands which ensures that trends and issues are correctly identified.
 
Donnie Macaulay, chief executive of WIE, said: "The information will be of immense value to local development agencies in forward planning for development activity.
 
"In years to come, attracting more people to the Western Isles will have a positive impact on future inward investment, business start-ups, and company survival rates."
 
Mr. Macaulay said it was very important that as many former school-leavers as possible responded to the survey over the next few weeks.