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Whenever we speak about developing ‘learning to learn’ skills, we should never forget that the ultimate purpose is to enable adults to get the best that they can from their learning. It should also mean that developing learning to learn skills enables learners to update and improve their skills, so that they are able return to learning and progress. When we think about more disadvantaged adult learners, learning to learn becomes even more ambitious in its purpose, as for this group of adults learning must become learnable. So ‘learning to learn’ means actually more than just a key competence for work and life – it actually means a pathway to learning for adult who are struggling with learning. More...

It is well known that in the last decade countries have been developing quality policies and systems for adult learning, and that there is great variety in the systems currently in place. A recent study for the European Commission – of which I was one of the authors – suggests that for those countries that do not have a system or framework for quality in adult learning, three types of responses are available. More...

Estonian Government adopted on 3rd November 2005 Estonian Strategy of Lifelong Learning 2005-2008. Despite the name of the strategy it focuses mainly on developments in adult education. Lifelong Learning Strategy is the fist strategic document fixing states goals in adult education after Estonia re-established its independence in 1991. More...

To rehabilitate more offenders it is necessary to improve prison education. Understanding the special situations of prisoners and prison officers are some of the core competencies that prison teachers need according to the partners of project European Induction Support for Adult Learning Professionals. More...

With MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) chances of finding a specific knowledge for adult individual to master, are really high. MOOCs give free access from the comfort of his home to courses provided by best educational institutions to anyone with an internet connection. More...

Iceland is presently working on its National Qualification Framework and one of the aspects under the biggest discussion is how adult education and training is mapped to the different NQF/EQF levels. As yet, no qualification offered specifically to adults has been mapped against the ISQF because learning providers are still in the process of defining their learning outcomes in terms of knowledge, skills and competences. More...

If you work in adult learning, you might be forgiven for thinking that the EU's strategy for education and training – known as Education and Training 2020 or ‘ET 2020’– is rather remote from the day-to-day job of educating adults. Launched in 2009, and following on from the preceding ET 2010, it consists of a set of objectives and priorities designed to guide the development of education and training. More...

The launch of the 2015 Commission Work Programme on 16 December has been heralded as marking a new approach towards a stronger focus for the EU on priorities and results. As the first work programme of the new Commission headed by Jean-Claude Juncker, it has been designed to send out a signal that far from “business as usual" we are to see a focus on the “big things" like “jobs and growth". More...

I’d like to present a critical observation on the distinction between formal, non-formal and informal learning. This concerns not so much the distinction itself (which is disputable though), but the tendency to make formalise what is non-formal and informal. 
Sometimes things crumble once you try to formalise and define them. Take for example a moving piece of art, or an inspiring play. More...

The 2012 Council Recommendation calls for Member States to put in place, by no later than 2018, arrangements to enable individuals to have their knowledge, skills and competences acquired via non-formal and informal learning validated, and to be able to obtain ’a full qualification, or, where applicable, part qualification on the basis of validated non-formal and informal learning experiences’. This is certainly a laudable and ambitious aim, and there are those who feel that the drive to formalise all types of learning may well lead to a narrower conception of learning. More...