Being the first in your family to go to university can be difficult. Not that I know personally because I didn't get to be a student. Statistics certainly show that if you come from a working class background then you are less likely to read for a degree. I certainly had encouragement from my family but that came from the realm of wishful thinking. They wanted the best for me but had no idea how to help me get there. And I never really knew what I wanted to achieve. Lack of clear goals coupled with the naturally laziness of a teenage boy would never get me anywhere. I certainly would not have thought I'd be learning German as an adult. I only just scraped a pass in the exams (GCE O-level back in those days) and was encouraged to take science subjects because those had given me better results.
Why am I blogging about something so far back in my past? Only because I watched an interesting video report from 3Sat about a support organisation set up to support and advise would be students from a working class background.
Arbeiterkind.de is an internet portal for anyone trying to be the first from their family to get through higher education.
Als Arbeiterkind an die Hochschule
Die Initiative "ArbeiterKind." ermutigt Abiturienten zu studieren, auch wenn die Eltern dies nicht getan haben. Die Idee stammt von Katja Urbatsch. Sie ist auch ein sogenanntes Arbeiterkind.
You can
watch the video featuring Katja Urbatsch - it's just 3mins27secs.
Do you think it's more difficult for kids to get to university if no-one from their family has been?
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