LLinE Lifelong Learning in Europe

Editorial - Valuing learning – learning valuing

What is the oldest age for learning still to be profitable? Is there any use in training people over 50 or 55? Is it profitable to give training to people with low basic education? Should men and women, as well as people in all parts of the country have equal opportunity to participate in adult education? What should these people of different ages be taught? And how? Can we with education remedy even social problems like religious intolerance? Should we in adult education concentrate on developing individuals and their learning paths or should the main focus be the learning of organizations? Or should we, with education, increase social and human capital in society? These are some of the questions discussed in the articles in this issue.

The adult education that is valued, often reflects the problem situations and development needs of the society. Adult education is today seen as an opportunity to solve most problems in society, and there are enough of them. Adult education is, for example, seen as a potential solution when in the EU there are almost 40 % of the population aged 25 to 65 without qualifications above compulsory education. It means over 75 million people. A cause of concern in society is the fact that less than half of those aged 55 and over are working. This is very expensive for the society and creates big demands for adult education.

In the report Learning for employment (2003) published by CEDEFOP there are concrete and truly challenging goals for adult education. The heart of the plan is learning for employment, through better quality education and training. One example is to raise the average EU employment rate among men and women aged 55 to 64 from 50, and increase the number of women in employment from an average of 51 % to over 60 % by 2010. These are huge challenges for adult education in vocational sector. In the report it is mentioned also that in certain sectors – notably cleaning, private security and tourism – decision makers are looking to raise the status of certain jobs in their sectors by improving levels of professionalism and introducing higher qualifications.

One very interesting and promising area in analysing what is important in education is to try to define a set of key competences for education at different levels. One of the most ambitious projects in this field is the so-called DeSeCo – project, which has tried to develop a theory-based frame of reference for that. Dominique Rychen describes the main conclusions of this project in her article. One of them is that the development of the identified key competences requires an overall development of critical thinking and a reflective practice based on formal and informal knowledge and experiences of life.

One focus of the articles in this issue is to analyse for whose well-being HRD is planned. Moilanen describes what the role the well-being of an individual has in HRD compared to the well-being of an organisation and society. She analyzes the balance between the well-being of an individual compared to the economic values. Borg and Mayo are focusing in their article on the role of lifelong learning in society and Niemi´s focus in her article is how the key competences can be achieved at individual level. She analyses how to make learning more effective and what is the role of self-regulation as a part of empowerment. She asks how learning can in the most effective way be mediated at different ages and in complex learning and working situations in competence building. Many big projects in this field are described in the article.

Kauko Hämäläinen
Professor, University of Helsinki, Editor-in-Chief, LLinE