History
Introduction
The reason for the Life Support Program coming into being is as a direct result of a study carried out on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Social Fund.
An extract of the findings of that report follows:
In recent years there has been a concerted drive to enable residents from socially excluded communities to participate in Higher Education but this has met with mixed success. Efforts to interest and engage socially excluded people in Higher Education are increasingly successful. However, the numbers who subsequently drop out of courses remains cause for concern. This is unacceptable from an institutional perspective on grounds of lack of cost effectiveness and from a wider policy and personal viewpoint as the opportunity to address social exclusion through learning is missed. The cost to individuals personally is usually a perception of failure and confirmation that learning is not for them.
Whereas unemployment is undoubtedly a primary cause of social exclusion the underlying issue is one of worklessness and economic inactivity gravitating to some communities when residents of neighbouring communities suffer much less disadvantage. This is explained in terms of the polarisation of opportunities where residents of disadvantaged communities are unable to benefit from the new jobs arising from improvements in the wider economy. This is due to a number of complex and profound factors that combine to form a cycle of deprivation. These include: either the skills that residents possess have become obsolete or they have been unable to acquire the qualifications, skills and attitudes now required to secure and sustain themselves in employment in the new labour market; their experience of daily life has sapped morale, self confidence and motivation; denuded trust; left many isolated or marginalised and weakened capacity to seek or benefit from the support available to them.