More than 100 students from a marginalised part of Limerick have gone on to third-level education over the past decade because of a community-based initiative.
The organisers hope the model will be used nationally to tackle the enduring problem of equal access to education.
Just over 2 per cent of university graduates come from the semi-skilled and unskilled categories of the labour force, yet these make up 17.5 per cent of the population, according to Prof Patrick Clancy of UCD.
Mr Pat O'Connor, a school principal and director of the Limerick Community Based Educational Initiative (LCBEI), said the participation rates from Southill, an unemployment blackspot, were a big improvement on the one student who went on to third level from the area in 1990.
But there has been a 25 per cent drop-out rate. "They have not all finished but we are like the Jesuits, once your name is down with us, you are never off the list," Mr O'Connor said.
The project, based in the Southill community school, St Enda's, has developed links with the University of Limerick (UL), parish organisations and Thomond Rotary Club. Its members form part of the support structure for students by acting as mentors.
Roteract, a UL branch of the Rotary Club, runs a reading skills scheme for young teenagers, and a university-based access office organises extracurricular activities. Supports continue for people who go on to third level through staff participation and the provision of a counselling service.
The project's first major report, recently introduced by the Minister of State, Willie O'Dea, has pointed to the need for the scheme to be promoted at primary school level. "It has a critical mass of successful, achieving students at third level, and people who now have masters and PhDs and postgraduate diplomas," Mr O'Connor said.
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