Framing "Second-Chance" Learning within the Traveller Community: University of Limerick's Traveller Access Initiative
John Heneghan (University of Limerick), Micheal Ohaodha (University of Limerick), Annette Fleming (Limerick Institute of Technology), David Odonnell (Institute of intellectual capital of ireland)
Abstract
“Education is no Burden”
This roundtable explores an innovative framework which the University of Limerick (UL) have developed with respect to educational access and civic engagement within some of Limerick city’s most disadvantaged communities and with particular reference to the Traveller community. Beginning six years ago, the HEA Traveller Access Initiative at UL has employed both the “Empathy and Mechanisms” and the “Traveller Education Framework” models to move beyond aspirations and towards concrete actions relating to the accession of third-level education by Travellers. To date, access to third-level in the Irish context has primarily been determined by completion rates at first and second-level, a precedent which has not served Travellers well at all. (The 2002 Census revealed that there was a vast difference between levels of attainment between Travellers and their settled peers; among children whose ages were known, almost two thirds of Traveller children dropped out of full-time education before they were 15 years of age compared to a national rate of 15.4%). Building on the EU-mandated National Action Plan promoting enhanced educational access, social dialogue and “equal opportunity” in terms of employment, this paper describes how UL’s Traveller Access Initiative has worked successfully with the Limerick Traveller community to implement a range of integrative models and third-level programmes, which have led to numbers of Travellers accessing and completing third-level. The round table will include reference to the overall approach (John), insights from teenage Travellers participating on both a welding and fabrication skills programme and carpentry skills programme at Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) (Annette), and the publication strategy (Mícheál).
