Ensuring parents attend adult learning classes could be the key to get more young people in some of England's most deprived areas to enter higher education.
That's according to research in four areas with some of England's worst rates of university and college enrolment by the local young population. It found the role of parents and carers is vital to young people's engagement in education. However, too many parents are failing to provide this encouragement because they have too little knowledge or experience of higher education themselves.
In one of the areas studied, Sheffield Brightside, which was hit hard by the decline of the steel industry in the 1980s, researchers found many parents were unable to provide any positive experience of work. Ann Walker, the research manager at Sheffield Hallam University's Widening Participation Policy Unit, said in Sheffield Brightside's case grandparents were often the only family member with a positive experience of employment.
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