"ROBERT" is one of the 240 students currently receiving assistance under the Northside Partnership's Higher Education Support Scheme. He is 33 and married, and lives in Coolock with his three children. He left school at 15 with his Intermediate Certificate and went to work with a shipping company until he left in 1990.
"I did various odd jobs after that but mostly I vegetated for a couple of years," he says.
My sister got a good result in her Leaving Cert and I kept pestering her to go on to college. After a year or so of it, she said if I was so keen I should do it.
"I started a computer course but the Partnership suggested that I go back to basics and get my Leaving Cert. I passed it and all the doors just opened up."
He applied to Trinity College, Dublin and Maynooth College, eventually securing a place in Maynooth where he is now in his second year of a three year arts degree.
"When I was growing up, third level was never even mentioned," he says. "You just never heard of someone going to third level. At the time, the Leaving Cert was the highest and then you were expected to try and get a job."
The Partnership provides him with travel costs and assistance with the purchase of books, as well as more general advice and assistance in coping with college. "Without the assistance of the Partnership it would have been very, very difficult to go to college. When I went in first the maintenance grant didn't come through for weeks. The book grant was crucial, otherwise you end up six or seven weeks behind on your reading list."
Robert's decision to return to full time education has also provided a potential role model for others both within the community and inside his own family. "Initially there was slagging but after a while it died down and people started to say that there must be something in it. Now my sister, who's 25, is going back to do her Leaving Cert."
Robert now "definitely" wants his own children, now aged 10, seven and five, to go on to third level.