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An analysis of the career ambitions of school pupils in Rochdale shows that there are complex links between their career aims and factors such as ethnic background and gender. The most important influences were identified as gender, social class, ethnic background and the school attended, and the research was intended to allow the analysis of the individual effects of these factors on career aims. Almost two-thirds of the pupils surveyed intended to go on to higher education at some point, with higher education attracting many more Asians than non-Asians. Apprenticeships were also popular, especially with boys and non-Asians.

This paper examines employment patterns in the British textile industry over the last twenty years. In particular it focuses on a dramatic structural shift in the balance of male and female employees within textiles. From the onset of the Industrial Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century until the 1960s, around two-thirds of textile employees were female. Over the last twenty years textile manufacture has become increasingly the domain of male employees. The research reported was located in Rochdale, one of the six localities which were researched as part of the Social Change and Economic Life Initiative. Rochdale has long been a major centre for textile production. The data are based upon a survey of textile plants undertaken in 1986 and 1987. The analysis revealed that employment in these textile plants had become increasingly male during the period between 1980 and 1986. These changes were more pronounced in larger establishments and within the minority of plants that had introduced advanced machinery. A further analysis of 987 work histories collected in 1986 revealed that women were far less likely to enter textiles in the 1980s than at any time since the advent of industrialization. A major reason for this lies in the increasing adoption of full-time shift work by plants in the town. Most part-time employment has been eliminated from textile mills as they seek to run advanced equipment continuously. The growth of flexible patterns of employment in the burgeoning service sector has interacted with these developments in textiles. Women still seek paid employment in Rochdale but no longer in the textile industry., There is considerable debate in contemporary Britain about changing patterns of employment and, in particular, what lies behind contemporary trends towards increasing levels of female participation in paid employment (Dex [...]

Muhammed Anwar, Between Cultures: Continuity and Change in the Lives of Young Asians London: Routledge, 1998, 212 pp., 14.99 [pounds sterling] p.b. (ISBN 0 415 04648 3) Muhammed Anwar's book [...]

This article examines the career aspirations of 376 fifth‐formers in three Rochdale comprehensive schools in December 1989. The analysis demonstrates that the relationships between various types of career aspiration and a series of explanatory variables (ethnicity, social class, gender and school attended) are complex. The article utilises Automatic Interaction Detector and HOMALS techniques to unpack these complex interactions. Overall the article concludes that there is little evidence of any important school effect and that aspirations for higher education are determined both by a marked ethnic effect and a strong social class effect amongst non‐Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]