1 - What does “adult education” mainly mean in your country for everyday citizen? What is the main mental association?

Although there is no formal inquiry to the population about their views on adult education, the number of participants in formal education and training offers since the “New Opportunities initiative”, launched in late 2005, leads us to believe that the “main mental association” with adult education is almost entirely restricted to formal education and training offers (understood as any offer that is part of the National Qualification System).

2 – What are the different types of adult learners in your country and what needs do they have? How can adult learning best cater for these group’s needs?

A still very significant proportion of adults have reduced skills, in Portugal. The OECD's "Implementation Guide for Skills Strategy for Portugal" states that, in 2016, 53% of Portuguese adults between the ages of 25 and 64 and 31% of those aged between 25 and 34 did not complete secondary education. In addition, there are still about half a million adults without any level of schooling.

Beyond this reality, the percentage of individuals with basic digital skills or above was, in 2016, only 47%.

As such, in our country there are different priority audiences that have to be covered by adult education and training: those who are considered illiterate; those who have low qualifications and those who need to strengthen or acquire digital skills.

As a response to this, Portugal has devised and put in place the Qualifica program (centered around the work of Qualifica Centers, that perform competence recognition and validation, as well as guidance to training offers that allow “upskilling” up to EQF level 4, as well as modular training aimed at CVET) and the Portugal INCoDE2030 Initiative (an integrated policy action aimed at strengthening the digital skills of adults).

Qualifica Centers (and their predecessors “Centers for Qualification and Vocational Training” and before that “New Opportunities Centers”) have served as the entry point to qualification pathways for many adults who have left school early and who, therefore, do not have the minimum competences for a full experience in society today.

3 – Who are the main providers of adult education in your country? How are they funded? Who sets the pedagogic agenda and syllabi?

The Qualifica Centers develop the processes of recognition and validation of competencies (RVC processes) and perform the diagnosis and guidance of adults to education and training offers developed by education and training providers, which include public and private schools, public and private training centers and other certified training providers.

In the overwhelming majority, the adult education and training depends on European funding.

The pedagogic agenda of adult education and training and of RVC processes is structured according to specific references, with benchmarks and goals to achieve, that were produced by ANQEP.

4 – What impact does adult education have in your country? To your knowledge, what evidence is there of this impact?

According to the OECD study cited above, regarding the implementation of a skills strategy for Portugal, raising the qualification of adults is crucial for economic growth and social cohesion in Portugal.

Skills Strategy implementation guidance for Portugal shows that “adults with higher levels of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills in a technologically rich environment, and who report using these skills, are more likely to be employed  and earn higher wages than those with lower skill levels. They also tend to be healthier, are more likely to trust others and to volunteer more. Governments also stand to gain from a population with higher skill levels: the benefits range from higher tax revenues to lower social spending”.

5 – Who advocates for and promotes adult education in your country?

ANQEP, acting under the authority of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, is the institution responsible for the regulation of formal adult education and training offers in Portugal. Several other promoters contribute to education and training in Portugal, from public institutions such as the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, to private institutions such as the ones represented by our EPALE Ambassadors. Fortunately, they are too much to mention, and we believe their work is fundamental to develop lifelong learning in our country.

In Latvia there are many different adult education providers- public and private, rather many for our small number of inhabitants.  On other hand  this competition helps to raise the quality of education and possibilities to get knowledge more closely to our working or living places.

 I don`t think that adult education must be compulsory, but it is important that persons can get support from state or employer, if they need to raise their competence- professional competence for staying in labour market and personal development possibilities to take  responsible decisions and spent free time meaningfully.

Nowadays it is important to learn languages , because our life is becoming more and more global and IT skills for getting and processing information flow.

Hello everyone. My name is Maria Parmakli and I am a member of EPALE Cyprus NSS Team.

Adult Education in Cyprus is provided by many types of educational institutions. They can be differentiated in: public institutions, semi-governmental institutions and private institutions. According to the type of education or training they offer, they may also be clustered in institutions offering: formal adult education, non-formal adult education or (continuing) vocational training.

Currently, there is no systematic monitoring mechanism on a national level regarding adult education provision in Cyprus that covers all fields, from general adult education to continuing vocational training. Also, relevant information is split up. This, of course, does not mean that there are no actions related to Adult Education. On the contrary, in Cyprus, a number of state organizations involved in adult education are active in this field, such as “The State Institutes of Further Education”, the “Post-Secondary Institutes of Vocational Education and Training”, etc.

This challenge, the mosaic of adult education, covering various and different fields, can be addressed through EPALE, as this platform can be a virtual meeting place for the various adult education experts. In addition, through the different themes on which the EPALE structure is based, one can follow and get informed about the different fields of adult education, even if there is no common supervisory authority to coordinate all actions.

Regarding the necessity of Adult Education (ΑΕ), I believe that AE is, of course, necessary for my country as well as other countries.  Firstly, adult education is needed for social reasons, as it enables adults to become better family and community members, to accept diversity and become more tolerant. In addition, it enhances personal development and fulfillment. Adult education enables the acquisition of Life Skills (/en/content/new-european-definition-life-skills) that are important to lead a qualitative life.

Apart from these social reasons, adult education is also necessary for economic reasons, as it can help adults to re-skill, in order to maintain efficiency in their work or to acquire new skills and knowledge so as to enter or reenter the labor market. Especially in the case of Cyprus as well as other countries that are affected by the financial crisis, many people needed to expand their professional horizons in order to secure a place in the labor market or improve their career prospects.

As far as the funding of activities is concerned for lifelong learning (including public adult education), it is primarily based on European and on public funds. Since most adult education programs are State-run, funding is granted mainly through the State budget and is mostly free of charge or requires very low fees from the participants. Private adult education involves fees which are set by the directorates of the private institutes. Most vocational training programs are run by semi-governmental organizations or private companies; they involve fees. Much of the funding for continuing vocational training courses comes from the Human Resource Development Authority (HRDA). The HRDA is not a training provider itself, but it subsidizes up to 80 percent training programs implemented by public and private institutions and companies. Institutions such as the Cyprus Academy of Public Administration or the Pedagogical Institute of Cyprus do not charge attendance fees at the pre-service and in-service courses which are offered to civil servants and teachers respectively. Most of the programs by the Cyprus Productivity Centre involve fees and are partially subsidized by the HRDA. The Open University of Cyprus as well as other public Universities charge fees for short vocational courses as well as for postgraduate courses.

REFERENCES

"Adult and Continuing Education in Cyprus", Gravani, M. N. & Ioannidou, A. (2014).W. Bertelmann Verlag DIE (German Institute for Adult Education): Bonn, Germany. [Country Portraits Continuing Education] DOI 10.3278/37/0575w 

/el/node/80560

“National Report O1- State of the Art in Adult education Strategies, policies, and tools”, Prepared by CARDET & Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC)

/el/node/80565

Nowadays it is not a question whether adult education is useful or not. In order to adapt to the ever-changing „real life”, where knowledge becomes outdated quickly, there is no way to avoid learning in adulthood. Knowledge and competencies need to be updated and renewed continuously. Different pathways of adult learning also play a vital role in the fight against poverty within social policy, since economic inactivity and poverty are closely related.

In our country both formal and non-formal education is available for adult learners.  Formal education is provided mainly by the courses offered by the Lifelong Learning Directorate.  Both morning and evening courses are available.  The non-formal courses are usually provided by Local Councils targeting mostly senior citizens and exposing them to basic skills needed in today’s digital world.  Many of our senior citizens lack digital skills such as applying or shopping online, using an ATM, accessing ones’ bank account and accessing similar services online.  The biggest problem of the majority of such learners is the lack of knowledge due to fear of technology.  Therefore, many local councils provide sessions addressing these needs.   Most of these courses are free since they are funded by the government. 

Our schools also offer sessions for parents who would like to support their children but are not able to because of the lack of basic skills.  We often meet parents who would want to help their children but do not know how to.  Therefore, the Literacy team of teachers often organise workshops for such parents to impart skills on how to support the children with reading, for example.  The success of such workshops is that the target group (the parents) see the relevance of these meetings which in this case is the well-being of their children.  The outcome is relevant, significant and meaningful to them, thus encouraging them to attend.  Other areas include Digital Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Safety.

Adult education is certainly needed in the context of lifelong learning. In Flanders there are various forms of adult education (formal and non-formal). We have a very large group of students in second chance education and NT2 (Dutch for foreigners), the low-literate and the courses in the prisons. Through adult education we try to close the gap in society. The centers for adult education and the centers for basic education receive their budget from the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training.

To help start the discussion I´d like to share some details of adult education in my home country of Finland. In Finland adult learning or adult education is probably first mentally associated with professional further training of adults, either in the workplace or in educational organizations. Universities, universities of applied sciences and vocational educational schools all have their own adult education operations.   

That being said, many Finns take part in non-formal adult education in e.g. adult education centres and folk high schools (Nordic folkbildning-style), without necessary thinking of it as a form of “adult education”. As many as 650 000 Finns take part in courses in adult education centres, some 12 000 study in folk high schools. Non-formal adult education has a special additional task in the integration education of immigrants, much of it language education. 

In 2017 Finns of working age (18-64) spent approximately 8 days a year taking part in formal work-related adult education. The trend is slightly decreasing. One day per year was spent in non-formal AE. 

What is the situation in your respective countries?