The California Community Colleges (CCC) system has adopted an equity-imperative approach to systemic reforms. As part of this effort, and to meet the state's workforce demands of the future, the system has focused on better serving the needs of adult learners, those between the ages of 25 and 64 with some college but no degree. The current impact…

Apprenticeship is an internationally recognized model of learning receiving increased attention as it evolves to meet the needs of modern workers, employers, and the labor market. As apprenticeship expands, and new industries explore the model, adult educators are being asked to help develop programs and pathways, write curriculum, serve as…

The goal in personalized assessment is to best fit the needs of each individual test taker, given the assessment purposes. Design-in-Real-Time (DIRTy) assessment reflects the progressive evolution in testing from a single test, to an adaptive test, to an adaptive assessment "system." In this article, we lay the foundation for DIRTy…

Interest in mentoring, which is an innovative method in adult education (CEDEFOP, 2013), has been growing rapidly in Europe, especially since the Lisbon European Council in 2000. In Greece, this interest has found expression either through the development of educational material in the context of adult educator training programmes, or the…

This paper examines the practical experience and research background of one private training provider with over 10 years' experience reskilling and upskilling mid-career workers with academic qualifications for employment in a growing technical and highly regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. This paper offers insights into how to…

At a time when the number of younger students entering our colleges and universities is stagnant, and the number of older people in our society continues to grow by the millions, schools of social work have an opportunity to broaden their student base by intentionally including people past midlife. This article argues that we must recruit and…

One of the pedagogical benefits that emerged from the pandemic period for adult learners was that teachers, in addition to supporting institutions, were more willing to consider and introduce technological innovations to the learning experience. For 2 years, teachers and institutions had no choice. Unanticipatedly, some of these innovative…

In line with Singapore's nationwide digital journey, the Training and Adult Education (TAE) sector of Singapore has launched the Innovation Learning 2020 initiative to catalyse the adoption of technology in the TAE sector. This paper presents findings from three projects we have conducted on innovative learning and discusses how learning and…

Third-age learning is a subset of lifelong learning enjoyed by individuals in the stage of retirement, and often 60 years or older. Community art education (CAE) for learners in the third age commonly occurs in recreational settings, nursing homes, museums, libraries and places of worship. In addition to these informal learning sites, there are…

The global society is facing a new burgeoning element: an ageing population. Response to the educational needs and interests of older adults requires innovative pedagogies and practices of teaching, research, and community engagement. While traditionally geared towards provision for younger adults, the case is presented that universities have the…

This article examines the innovative past of the large-scale, single-mode open universities that follow the model of the UK Open University (UKOU), analyzes the main challenges which they are currently facing in the digital era, and concludes with highlighting leading prospects for their future operation. The establishment of the UKOU in 1969…

Competency-based higher education focuses on workplace competencies and often enables students to progress at their own pace. The university in this case study decided to pursue competency-based education (CBE) to offer working adults a convenient, self-paced way to earn a bachelor's degree. The mission of the university--to provide open access to…

This article investigates the innovation concept in two key welfare areas where the demands for innovation are substantial, namely vocational education and elder care. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews on the collaboration between an educational institution and elder care services, the article develops a tripartite empirical…

Teaching reading to low-level English as a Second Language (ESL) students can be a challenge, according to the author. At times, teachers are teaching adult students to read in English when some in class are not literate in their first language. In such a situation, they are not mapping a sound-symbol correspondence onto a known oral language, as…

This article begins with a scenario that reflects a growing concern for both teacher and adult learner in today's college history classroom. A student in his sixties remembers his experience as a young man growing up during this time period in American history, while the professor knows only what others have told him plus the scholarly works he…