This article focuses on evidence regarding cross-national patterns of participation in adult education and an interpretation of these patterns from an institutional and public policy perspective. The interpretation follows from the perspective that sustaining high and widely distributed levels of investment in the development and maintenance of…

Since the 1990s, a wealth of literature has compared the benefits of having a GED[R] test credential versus a traditional high school diploma or no high school credential, with an early emphasis on economic impact. One advantage of passing the GED test lies in its ability to open doors to the postsecondary system. Nearly two-thirds of U.S.…

Contrary to pervasive assumptions about the need for lifelong learning, U.S. and Canadian adults' collective learning efforts far outpace workplace requirements. Underemployment has several dimensions: the talent-use gap, structural unemployment, involuntary reduced employment, credential gap, performance gap, and subjective underemployment.…

The survey of adult education conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics in 1972 is analyzed. The following facts are highlighted in the more detailed analysis of 1972 results: (1) The demand for hours of adult education is distributed in proportion to eligibles in each age and education group, (2) persons with lower levels of…

This report, one of a series of country studies on higher education and employment particularly in continuing professional education, looks at recent developments in the United States. A foreword briefly sketches the state of higher education in general that provides the context for professional continuing education in the United States. The…

This document reports the activities and impressions of 30 Swedish adult educators who exchanged ideas, experiences, and research results concerning adult education and learning at more than 20 conferences and seminars organized in the United States and Canada. The foreword briefly summarizes some impressions. (Among them are that adult education…

The long-term economic and social impacts of the rise in levels of education on mechanisms of access to employment and on human resources management were examined in a comparative study of educational expansion and the labor markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with special reference to the United States. Five teams of…