The Adult Participation in Learning Survey provides unique insights into adult learning across the UK. It adopts a deliberately broad definition of learning, reflecting the fact that learning is about much more than formal courses and qualifications. The 2024 survey shows just over one half (52%) of adults have taken part in learning in the last…

No undergraduate or postgraduate programmes currently exist for the professional education of informal educators. The authors outline the development of previous programmes and consider the emergence of informal education as a discrete concept. The article then highlights some key failings in the professional education of informal educators and…

This research paper is one in a series produced as part of the Cedefop project The changing nature and role of VET (2016-18). The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of how CVET is conceptualised in various international level policy documents and how it is referred to across countries. It discusses national conceptions of CVET, the…

As Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency, the author was asked to give her perspective on the lifelong learning prospects for young people. She believes that one's capacity to be a learner and to learn, at whatever stage of life, is directly influenced by every other aspect of one's life, from one's attitudes to one's income. As a young…

By the end of 2010 over 15 million euros will have been allocated in the UK through the Grundtvig adult learning programme. Over 900 organisations and thousands of staff, individuals and learners involved in adult education have benefitted. Grundtvig has helped to enhance the quality of learning provision; widen perspectives; increase motivation;…

This report reviews the engagement of older learners (defined as those aged 50 and over) in education and training with particular reference to their involvement in higher education. The ageing of populations was one of the most important trends in the 20th century and will raise major challenges in this century. Appended are: (1) Selected UK…

This article proposes lifelong learning as a socio-personal process and a personal fact. As such, it is conceptually distinct from an educational provision, which constitutes one kind of institutional fact. In making this distinction, this article seeks to elaborate a major flaw in the precepts for conceptualisation and enactment of the report…

Extramural liberal adult education (LAE), as conceived in the particular UK tradition, was doomed by its high-minded origins and its privileged status, and contributed little to the new concepts of "éducation permanente," lifelong learning, the knowledge society, the learning society and region, or to the new understandings of university…

This report examines access to lifelong learning opportunities on Canada's information highway. The report begins with a glossary and a learner-centered model in which the information highway links learners with learning opportunities provided through educational institutions, community organizations, government, and business and industry.…

This document contains the agenda and papers on work and training presented at the Agora VII meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece in October, 1999. The Foreword describes each session with a list of the topics and papers, along with a brief introduction to the topics. The three sessions are: Work and Training in Society in the 21st Century; Working…

This book contains 19 papers on 20th century thinkers in adult and continuing education. The book is arranged in four parts as follows: early 20th century English thinkers; early 20th century American thinkers; theorists of adult and continuing education; and theorists of adult education and social change. The following papers are included:…

Strategies for overcoming exclusion through adult learning were identified through case studies of 19 initiatives in the following countries: Belgium; Mexico; the Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; and the United Kingdom. The study programs involved a diverse array of formal, nonformal, and informal public sector, community, and enterprise-based…

The following are among the 104 papers included: "Vocational Education and Training Partnerships in Remote Aboriginal Communities" (Arnott, Dembski); "Participation in Adult Education" (Benn); "Learning Organisations" (Bierema); "A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Institutional Dynamics Involved in a…

This document contains 43 papers from a conference on researching inclusion. The following are among the papers included: "Include Me Out: Critique and Contradiction in Thinking about Social Exclusion and Lifelong Learning" (Paul Armstrong); "The Linking of Work and Education To Enable Social Inclusion" (Dave Beck);…