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This article reflects on the findings of the Research voor Beleid (RvB) study for the second phase of the assessment of the 'Impact of ongoing reforms in education and training on adult learning sector' (2010), with particular focus on adult participation in education in three [European Union] EU Member States in south-eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece). Based on generic quantitative appreciation from Eurostat that is largely supported by the qualitative results of the RvB study, the article provides an insight into the structural and policy peculiarities in developing and promoting adult education in three countries, arguing that barriers to participation in south-eastern EU Member States relate more to cultural, structural and socio-economic aspects rather than policy inadequacies.

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This book critically reflects on the context in which lifelong learning policies and practices are organized in Europe with contributions of researchers and policy makers in the field. Through a critical lens the book reinterprets the core content of the messages that are conveyed by the European Commission in the ‘Memorandum for Lifelong Learning’, the most important policy document in the area, which after a decade from its publication still remains the vehicle for all current developments in lifelong learning in Europe. With references to research findings, proposed actions, and applications to immediate practice that have an added value for Europeans - but which either do not appear to correspond directly to what is stipulated by the European Commission, or are completely ignored as part of the lifelong learning process - the book offers an analytic and systematic outlook of the main challenges in creating the ‘European area of lifelong learning’. The book follows the same structure as the Memorandum in order to debate and critically approach in separate sections the core issues that Europe faces today in relation to the idea of making a ‘European area of lifelong learning’.

Summary from publisher’s website.

The chapters are: Introduction / Maria Gravani and George K. Zarifis; Part one, ‘Lifelong Learning and New Basic Skills for lifelong learning’, contains: The skills: a chimera of modern European adult education / Katarina Popovic; Computer literacy among the generations: how can older adults participate in digital society? / Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha and Claudia Strobel; Basic skills for becoming a citizen / Emilio Lucio-Villegas; ‘New basic skills’, nonbasic skills, knowledge practices and judgment: tensions between the needs of basic literacy, of vocational education and training, and of higher and professional learning / Martin Gough; Part two, ‘Lifelong learning and more investment in human resources’, contains: Incentives and disincentives to invest in human resources / Marcella Milana; An inconsistent policy: lifelong learning and adult education policy towards competitive advantage / Paula Guimaraes and Fatima Antunes; Vocational education: the tension between educational flexibility and predictability / Eva Andersson and Gun-Britt Warvik; Lifelong learning and employability / Andreas Fejes; Human capital and human activity in lifelong learning / Despina Tsakiris; Part three, ‘Lifelong learning, innovative teaching and learning, and rethinking guidance and counselling’, contains: Re-representing education’s image and status: in the ‘interest’ of pedagogical innovation / Stephen O’Brien; Teaching methods and professional teaching in adult education: questioning the Memorandum’s understanding of professional teaching / Regina Egetenmeyer and Patrick Bettinger; From ‘innovation’ to ‘quality’: the topic of professionalization for adult learning staff in selected European policy documents / Simona Sava; Being an adult learner and learning through life / Larissa Jogi; Perspectives on guidance and counselling as strategic tools to improve lifelong learning in Portugal / Maria Paula Paixao, Jose Tomas da Silva and Albertina L. Oliveira; Part four, ‘Lifelong learning and valuing learning’, contains: Contradicting values in the policy discourse on lifelong learning / Nils Bernhardsson; Quality in adult learning: EU policies and shifting paradigms? / Bert-Jan Buiskool and Simon Broek; The adoption of an international education policy agenda at national level: conceptual and governance issues / Alexandra Ioannidou; Vocational learning: shifting relationships between education and working life / Erik Kats and Jaap van Lakerveld; Evaluating learning and the work of a researcher in the era of lifelong learning / Kristiina Brunila; What about the learner-search for identity and meaning in autobiographic methods / Laura Formenti and Michaela Castiglioni; Part five, ‘Lifelong learning and bringing learning closer to home’, contains: ‘Bringing learning closer to home’: understanding ‘outreach work’ as a mobilization strategy to increase participation in adult learning / Barry Hake; Lifelong learning and schools as community learning centres: key aspects of a national curriculum draft policy framework for Malta / Peter Mayo; The rise and fall and rise again of learning cities / Lynette Jordan, Norman Longworth and Michael Osborne; Collective dimensions in lifelong education and learning: political and pedagogical reflections / Francoise F. Laot; Reinstating the invisible: a proposed framework for European learning collectives / George K. Zarifis and Maria Gravani. Show less

This paper presents a comparative examination of four local learning centres that provide learning opportunities throughout life in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. The paper aims to assess some of the strengths and weaknesses of different types of local learning centres and partnerships in South-Eastern Europe-in line with the value and impact of the Lisbon strategy for developing multipurpose local learning centres for 'bringing learning closer to home' - in order to draw some conclusions on how to promote greater collaboration and a culture of co-operation, in an area where a lifelong learning culture is still underdeveloped, compared with that in other parts of the European Union.

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Since 2000, the European Union [EU] has given greater attention to lifelong learning, as expressed in the Lisbon presidency conclusions and the general objectives of the Education and Training 2010 work programme. In September 2007, these policy proposals were further strengthened with the announcement of the ‘Action Plan on Adult Learning’ [indexed at TD/IRD 88.227] that sets out how Member States and other stakeholders could be supported to improve, implement and develop adult education and monitor its results. Because of the multitude of policy expectations, training and professional development for adult learning staff are still relatively uncommon in some parts of Europe, despite a societal demand, which also should be interpreted in the context of changing societal conditions and needs besides raising the quality of lifelong learning. This is largely echoed in South-East Europe where the situation of the training of adult learning staff is more on the downside than most policy-makers would have expected. In most South-East European countries, adult learning is expected to provide individual, cultural, and social improvement, to address illiteracy or earlier unsatisfactory access to initial education, and mostly to respond to labour market access problems. At the same time, adult learning staff have to face obstacles such as dependency on government or EU funding, changing political perspectives on and interest in adult education, policies prescribing an enclosed employment-oriented adult education market and occasionally a lack of national legislation or frameworks and structures covering their field. Along with these general findings, this article focuses on the comparison of current policies on training and professional development of adult learning staff in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, according to three vital topics: selection procedure and working conditions of adult learning staff (focusing on recruitment, professional expectations and employment situation); opportunities and obstacles for their professional development and evaluation (focusing on career paths and monitoring, assessing and evaluating issues); and societal situation for the profession (focusing on attractiveness and social impact).

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The professional development and the improvement of the quality of adult learning staff have been recognised as priorities at European level. However, at European and national levels there is not always a clear view of the competences needed to fulfil the professional tasks in adult learning, partly due to the diversity of the field. The aim of the study reported here is to develop a set of key competences which can function as a reference for Europe and which can be used by Member States on a voluntary basis. This report contains the outcomes of the study. Chapter one presents as an executive summary the set of key competences developed for adult learning professionals. Chapters two to six contain the report on the study on key competences of adult learning professionals. Chapters seven and eight provide information about the sources and literature used in this study. In the last chapter a short description is given of the educational programs and job descriptions used to ground the set of key competences in empirical reality. These educational programs and job descriptions have been taken up as case studies in the report. Show less