From out-of-school-youth to TVET student: Exploring the funds in families and communities that facilitate second-chance learning

Abstract

Many young South African adults are returning to education as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students. These students’ educational reintegration can be challenging, given their history of failure in the formal school system. We argue that many vulnerable adult learners succeed despite their situational and dispositional challenges because of the agentic acts present in their families and communities. However, in the parent support literature there is a misrecognition of the contributions that adults from socio-economically deprived communities make in the success of such second-chance learners. This multiple case study had as context a Western Cape TVET college where five purposively selected students’ experiences with family and community support were explored. The article responds to the research question: ‘What are the embedded funds in families and communities that facilitate the TVET students’ successful entry into secondchance learning?’ The findings refute the perception that poor communities disinvest in the education of their young adult learners. It found that in their worlds there were various role-players and networks that facilitated the five TVET students’ educational success. What the communities lacked in financial and material wealth, they made up for with aspirational, emotional and navigational wealth from which the adult students benefitted.