This thesis maps the education, training and employment experiences of fifty-four young adults in the South Wales Valleys. Over three years, at the turn of the twentieth century, it chronicled fifty-four school careers that led to no, or few qualifications; one hundred and twenty-three experiences of post-school learning programmes that had similarly poor outcomes; and one hundred and twenty-six jobs found and lost. The thesis looks at what happened to the young people through these experiences and uses their narratives to try and explore why it happened. Using theories of social and cultural capital it explores how, within a disadvantaged community, these young people are particularly disadvantaged. The study found that their experiences of education, training and employment promoted and reinforced a personal agency that prioritised the immediate over the planned, the tangible over the prospective and the known over the unknown. It also further embedded a localism that relied on social networks and shared cultural perspectives to provide support but that also confined them to an impoverished sub-section of the local labour market. The thesis concludes that learning can play a crucial role in securing a sustainable route out of poverty for these young people, and the forty children they had between them by the end of the study. However, to do so, the opportunities provided, and expectations of those providing them, will need considerable development. Learning has to find a way of working with, and not against, the cultural and social norms that have shaped these young people.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:528082 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Lloyd-Jones, S. |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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