Challenges in Implementing Lifelong Learning for Adults

Over a hundred policy-makers, researchers and practitioners joined a policy dialogue on lifelong learning, held in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 28 September to 1 October 2006.

This dialogue took place during the Annual Lifelong Learning Festival in the Republic of Korea. This year, Busan, the second largest city of Korea was the host of the yearly Lifelong Learning Festival, which brings together thousands of Koreans to show-case their experiences.
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI) invited thirty key stakeholders from Africa, Asia and South America to participate in the policy dialogue, which covered issues such disseminating a culture of lifelong learning, expanding opportunities for learning basic skills, implementing equivalency and qualifications frameworks, supporting strategies for distance learning, developing human resources and fostering partnerships which help promote lifelong learning policies and practices.

The policy dialogue was also supported by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, the Korean National Open University (KNOU), and the Korean Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET). Among the recommendations emerging from the policy dialogue were:

1. to intensify exchanges of practices between Asia and Africa in the field of lifelong learning;
   
2. to have more structured and sustained policy dialogues on lifelong learning; and
   
3. to identify specific areas where capacity building on lifelong learning could be carried out.
   

Three outputs are planned as a result of the policy dialogue:

1. a publication with all the papers presented;
   
2. a synthesis report which summarizes the main points as well as details the recommendations; and
   
3. an advocacy guide/toolkit on developing and implementing policies on lifelong learning
   

In addition to the policy dialogue, the participants went on a field visit to Changwon where they were received by the Mayor and heard to how Changwon operates as a learning city. The final leg of the field trip was a visit to the lifelong learning center.