As new priorities for adult education policy and practice in the context of lifelong learning emerge, it is essential that possibilities for adults to go one step up in terms of qualifications become a permanent feature of adult education and training, formal, non-formal and informal, so as to enable the growth of competence, particularly for individuals with low or no qualifications.

This is one of the key messages in the Communications on Adult Learning adopted by the European Commission.

Key issues in this regard include:

1. the availability, type and location of adult learning programmes/courses
2. the profile of adult learners (e.g. gender, age, socio-economic status, educational level, qualification level)
3. the performance of adult learners (e.g. completion rates, learning outcomes) and providers (e.g. quality, relevance of programmes/courses)
4. the reasons for non-participation in adult learning.

EAEA has been allowed to publish some central documents on the work carried out in this area. You can download them from our policy section area.

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