Adult learning routes to tertiary study

Abstract

This research project focuses on identifying adults' learning routes to tertiary study, specifically to university study after a break of at least 10 years from secondary school where they gained less than three School Certificate passes. A detailed national and international literature review indicates that past research has been dominated by a desire to identify the demographic profile of those who do or do not actively participate in formal and nonformal adult education, the motivations of participants and the environmental circumstances and surroundings which facilitate and/or frustrate adult participation. This has provided a very limited picture of how adults' education potential is realised over time and what progressions do or do not take place and the reasons for this. The fieldwork of this research project located a group of adults who had gained fewer than three School Certificate passes at secondary school and after a significant break from formal education were actively participating in tertiary studies. The aim was to identify where this group started their return to learning, to retrospectively examine the routes they had undertaken and to determine the uses made of formal and nonformal learning opportunities. To test the validity and reliability of the data gained and to consider what might be the most appropriate research methodology for investigations such as this a triangular retrospective research methodology is employed which involves both quantitative and qualitative collection and analysis. The results clearly indicate that firstly, research methods which involve in-depth individual analysis and qualitative approaches provide the most detailed and accurate information on the learning/education routes followed by adults and the reasons for these, and secondly, that nonformal learning/education plays a significant, and in many cases vital role in the learning/education routes of adults who eventually end up re-entering the formal education system. This has far reaching implications for the development of a "seamless" education system and future policy formulation.