Adult learning has benefited from the visibility and profile of lifelong learning across a range of European policy areas. The overall profile of adult learning benefited enormously from the European Commission's decision to group all its education and training programmes together under the brand of the "Lifelong Learning Programme." The…

During the affluent noughties it was sometimes said of government that it had "more visions than Mystic Meg and more pilots than British Airways". In 2011, the pilots, the pathfinders, the new initiatives are largely gone--implementation is the name of the game--but the visions remain. The latest one, as it affects adult learners, is in…

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…

Tony Bates is a world-known expert on distance education. He has published extensively on both traditional and contemporary distance learning practices. Besides teaching courses and delivering seminars in the area of distance education, he has also provided consultancy with a number of institutions around the world. These include both formal and…

This article presents an interview with Sir John Daniel outgoing President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning. Sir John Daniel's term as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) ended on May 31, 2012. Readers of "Distance Education" will know of Sir John's work at the Tele-universite (Directeur des…

Non-formal education (NFE) is now considered as playing a critical role in the achievement of the objective of Education for All, by reaching the learning needs of youth and adults who do not have access to formal education, increasing their employment opportunities and therefore contributing to poverty alleviation. Yet there is still insufficient…

The purpose of this brief note is to compare non-formal education in Poland and Canada in terms of accessibility, and it is motivated by the fact that learning is a lifelong process because of rapid advances in technology. The theoretical framework for this commentary is supplied by the general idea that non-formal learning provides a social…

Experiences of developing nations are used to formulate three types of nonformal education: as complement, satisfying needs unfulfilled by the school system; as alternative, using traditional or indigenous learning; and as supplement to the formal system. Nonformal education is analyzed across nations as system, setting, or process. (SK)

In the Asia-Pacific region, innovations in nonformal adult education rarely become mainstream policy and practice. Effective adult education policy advocacy requires assertion of a lifelong view and a common position of advancing learning for the most marginal groups. (SK)

This article revisits and reinterprets my previous paper. It is a snapshot of the lifelong learning system building in selected Asian countries, reflected in the mirror of the Asian Financial Crisis in the 1997s and the aftermath of that event. I reconsidered the arguments (1) the economic recession had delivered a global dimension of lifelong…

Concentrates on the work of Community Education through Radio (ECORA), a Bolivian organization that planned and implemented the nonformal education component of a project that included school construction, teacher training, bilingual education, and administrative reforms within the Ministry of Education and Culture. (JOW)

Radio broadcasting is used in Botswana to inform, teach, and persuade adults about issues in agriculture, health, wildlife, conservation, and other areas. However, open broadcasting is not an effective nonformal education tool. Active and guided group listening to radio enables discussion and feedback. (SK)

Empowerment through nonformal education helps women organize for change to meet practical and strategic needs. Stages of empowerment include awareness of the problem, ownership, interaction, personal action, and collective action. Each stage has cognitive, psychological, economic, and political dimensions. (SK)

Reports on experiences and insights gained from organizations in the Philippines and Thailand that are involved in various aspects of nonformal education and that are also involved in discussions with people about what is being done and why. (JOW)

In order to significantly contribute to human resource development, the Philippines must develop an integrated educational system of lifelong learning, with a special emphasis on non-formal education. Despite the value that is placed on formal, or sequential academic schooling, it is non-formal schooling that makes accessible the acquisition of…