Standardized questionnaires were used for data collection, which were completed online. Adolescents who did not respond to the request to complete the online questionnaire were contacted by telephone to participate in a CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview). The CATI questionnaire contained some of the questions from the online questionnaire. The remaining questions were collected via a supplemental questionnaire when CATI participants agreed to participate. The survey took place between August 2021 and February 2022. The start of the survey was thus after the start of the new secondary school year, and the end of the survey before the start of the spring semester 2022, which meant that definite information could be obtained about all study participants with regard to their educational situation. To complete the online questionnaire, adolescents were sent a web link with a personal password by e-mail or letter at the end of August 2021 (n = 2000). A reminder letter was sent at 2-week intervals to those adolescents who had not completed the online questionnaire. CATI surveys started in October 2021 and thus took place in parallel with the reminders to participate in the online questionnaire.
Prior to the main survey, the questionnaire was piloted in June 2021. Around 10 young people who were the age of the WiSel sample were asked to complete the online questionnaire and provide feedback regarding the comprehensibility of the questions and completion time. The feedback was discussed by the research team and any adjustments were made to the questionnaire. The data of the adolescents who participated in the pilot were deleted after the pilot, and adolescents who participated in the pilot were excluded from participation in the main survey. With the first sending of the study participation invitation, adolescents received a digital voucher worth 10 Swiss francs (unconditional incentive).
For the construction of the questionnaires, extensive and documented preliminary work was used (cf. technical documentation volumes from the WiSel studies). The items and constructs were partly taken over from instruments of previous survey waves. Unmodified, they were included in the main survey to allow for change analyses. For new concepts, established instruments were used whenever available. If necessary, items from existing scales were adapted, evaluated in pretests, and subsequently optimized. Factor analyses were conducted for the scales with multiple items, which indicated good internal validity (α > .7).
The questionnaire consists of six sub-blocks. In the first block, demographic information was collected. The second block on the previous and current training situation reconstructed the course of adolescents' career and provided information on adolescents' educational situation during the survey period. In the third block, study participants were asked about their interests and personality. Block 4a included questions about the perceived situation in employment. These questions were asked only of those adolescents who were either employed, in vocational education and training, or completing a vocational baccalaureate (n = 502). Some of these questions addressed only adolescents who were working in a company (either as part of their employment or their dual VET program; n = 482). Block 4b contained questions for adolescents in educational settings. Questions were presented to those adolescents who were either studying at the time, attending general upper secondary education, in vocational education and training, or currently completing a vocational baccalaureate (n = 403). Finally, the fifth part asked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Questions referred to the perceived degree of impact on adolescents' situation in an educational setting or in employment. Additionally, adolescents were asked to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their career situation. Variables that were presented to only some of the adolescents for answering are marked by the variable name ending with a capital letter (-A, -B, -C, -D, -E, -F, -G, -T, -X, -Y, -Z, -AB, -BM, -S2; explanation: see Appendix docuband).
The WiSel III data set can be matched with previous WiSel data sets: WiSel I (https://www.swissubase.ch/de/catalogue/studies/11063/latest) and WiSel II (https://www.swissubase.ch/de/catalogue/studies/12206/latest) via the variable "abc_id".
